High School
by skyperson9
Summary: Sherlolly at High school! ;) AU. Wasn't supposed to be a casefic, oh! Well...
1. Chapter 1

"Bye dad!" Molly called out to her father as she rushed out of the house. Cooper poked his head out of the kitchen door watching her race through the porch. He smiled softly in his daughter's direction and went back to make breakfast.

 _'_ _Damn. Late again'_ as she pedaled furiously on her bicycle towards her school.

Why did this always happen? Oh! Yeah. She knew why. She had spent the night reading the pathology journal after completing school work and fallen asleep in the wee hours of the day, rendering her deaf to her alarm. And now she was running late. Again.

She was determined to make it time and started pedaling with renewed energy. She checked her watch. Two more minutes. For those watching from the streets of London, she was a spectacle. Mousy brown hair tied with a band being whipped by the air, her cardigan falling of her shoulders and her elfin features focusing straight ahead to avoid being hit by one of those many cars that seemed to block her path at every turn.

Molly studied at St. George's, which was a highly respectable school in London. She had been homeschooled by her father until High school. Her father was a famous physician, practicing in London. Her mother, Elizabeth, had died giving birth to her. Her father loved her immensely and he couldn't bear to be separated from her. So instead of sending her to boarding school like the rich at that time, he taught her at home.

He taught her all he knew and even at a young age Molly's interest leaned towards pathology. His beliefs were cemented when he would find her prodding a dead insect instead of playing with her toys. She was a quick learner and a hard worker. When she turned sixteen Cooper realized he couldn't keep his daughter with him forever without jeopardizing her education. Molly had secured a place in St. George's without the slightest influence from her father's side, to her father's immense pride.

Molly parked her bike in the parking lot, just as the bell rang. She haphazardly locked it and ran towards her algebra class. The hallway was already empty and her shoes echoed on the floor as she hurried towards her class. Thankfully Mrs. Hudson was just organizing her lecture notes so she slipped in. She breathed a huge sigh of relief, adjusted her cardigan and searched for her best friend. Unfortunately the seat next to Mary (said best friend) was already occupied. Mary gave her an apologetic smile. She must have thought Molly wouldn't make it , so hadn't saved her a place. Molly's shoulders slumped. It meant she'd have to sit alone at the back as all other seats were occupied.

 _'_ _Serves me right.'_ She thought as she headed towards the seat, eyes glued to the floor.

When Molly joined here she was pretty nervous. Despite being homeschooled she had managed to make friends. Her kind nature albeit her weird humor sense helped her. But she knew high school would be different. Things were made worse by watching Mean Girls. The idea of watching it was suggested by Meena, her friend, when Molly told her about going to school. Molly had been absolutely terrified. The hardships Cady (the lead) underwent made sure that she had nightmares.

But upon joining she had the extreme good luck to sit next to Mary Morstan during biology. They had instantly become fast friends. Mary was short and had short blonde hair quite opposite to Molly's long brown hair. They had been inseparable since then. She also made quite a lot of friends in various classes.

As Molly sat in her seat, a raven haired girl from the front row turned back to give her a smirk and mouthed _loser_. She then returned to gossip with Kitty sitting next to her, who also shot Molly a dirty look.

Molly rolled her eyes. Right, she also had made some enemies.

Irene Adler.

Irene resembled Regina George from the movie in more than one way. She was extremely pretty, obscenely rich and bitchy to the core. She was the most popular girl in the school. So typically she had all the jocks fighting with each other to be with her. But also typically she was dating the most popular guy in the school: James Moriarty. Molly had no clue what she had done to tick Irene off, but she hated the sight of Molly. It had been almost four months since she joined school and she was yet to figure out why Irene didn't like her. Not that it mattered. She didn't care and had no interest in nurturing friendship with her.

Mrs. Hudson cleared her throat and the class immediately became silent. She was an old lady, probably of sixty years of age.

"Today we will study about solutions of equations" she said in her motherly voice.

Molly enjoyed math. It was her second favorite after Pathology. Mrs. Hudson had explained to them the method of substitution and had given them a problem to work out when there was a knock on the class door.

Molly had been busy solving the question, so she didn't look up. However she did look up when she addressed the class.

"Class, we have the pleasure of having a new student with us today. Why don't you tell us your name?" she asked to the figure standing next to her.

Molly's eyes landed on the new student. He was the most beautiful person she had ever clapped eyes on. He was tall, lean yet muscular. He had sharp cheekbones and a mass of curly black hair that contrasted excellently with his pale skin tone. He was wearing a black T-shirt and deep blue jeans. Molly was mesmerized by him, all thoughts of equations flying out of the window.

"I am Sherlock Holmes." He said in a deep baritone.

 _Sherlock...what an unique name._

"Welcome to St. George's, Sherlock. Please take a seat" said Mrs. Hudson and motioned towards the class.

Sherlock's eyes flitted around and met Molly's. Her breath hitched when she saw those eyes. They were blue-green with gold specks. They then took notice of the empty seat next to her and headed towards the back.

Molly flushed as she realized he would sit next to her.

 _Oh dear!_

 **AN: Thank you for reading! :) Let me know what you think and if I should continue! :p**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN : Thank you for the favourites and follows and review. :D**

Molly Hooper loved cats. It was no surprise that she owned one. She was very fond and fascinated by Toby (her cat). The grace with which the felines carried themselves was a sight to behold. The reason why Molly was thinking about cats in her algebra class was because of the new student: Sherlock Holmes. As he made his way to her table she couldn't help but admire the feline grace with which he carried himself.

 _'_ _You are staring!'_ screamed a sane part of her brain.

Blushing profusely she ducked her head and stared fixedly at her algebra notes as he took the seat next to her. She peeked at him from the corner of her eye to see that he was settled and had taken out a notebook to solve the problem Mrs. Hudson had given them.

She couldn't help but notice that he had long, elegant fingers which were flying across his notes as he solved the problem.

He turned his head abruptly and caught her staring (again!). This time she just froze unable to tear her gaze. He gave her a once over which made her feel like being scanned. She reverted her gaze back to her notes, her face steaming. She felt his eyes on her for a moment before he went back to the problem.

Taking a deep breath she focused on the task at hand. Boy! This was going to be a long hour.

The rest of the class was pure torture. She had to will herself to not look in his direction. Also she had been mentally preparing herself to introduce herself to him. Molly was not painfully shy. But the mere thought of him looking at her was enough to make her throat go dry.

The shrill ring of the bell broke her train of thoughts.

Students began to pack and trickle out of the room. Trying to calm to nerves Molly hurried to catch up with Sherlock who was now near the doorway. She caught up and was now next to him. He looked up at her. She was just about to say 'hi' when someone pushed her back.

"Hi" Irene said to Sherlock and fluttered her eyelashes at him.

Sherlock's eyes flitted back to Molly before resting on Irene. "Hello" he said in his velvet baritone.

Molly watched open mouthed in shock as Irene blatantly used her feminine wiles and fake act on him. Molly gave her a look of pure disgust and went to meet Mary who was waiting for her in the hallway.

"Did you see that?" Molly asked with outrage to her best friend.

"What?"

"Irene." Molly said here voice dripping with anger. She then explained what had happened. Mary uttered a string of curses and put a hand over Molly's shoulders.

"That shit. She already has a boyfriend for god's sake!" Mary said.

They both turned back and saw that there was now no sign of either Irene or Sherlock.

Mary saw her sigh and said "Don't worry. You can talk to him tomorrow again." And then she added with a broad grin "You finally have a crush!"

Molly blushed at that. That was true. Mary would forever whine that for someone who gave awesome relationship advice how come she herself wasn't into one. Molly would just shrug. She never liked anybody enough to accept to go on a date. And now she was extremely interested in Sherlock Holmes.

After bad mouthing Irene and gushing over Sherlock for a few more minutes, Molly bid goodbye to Mary and went to biology.

Mr. Stamford was setting up the projector for that day's class when she entered. As she was early the class was fairly empty. She took up her usual seat in the front and started to read the text material.

She was completely engrossed in the workings of brain that she gave a startled gasp when someone cleared their throat next to her. She looked up to see that it was James Moriarty.

"May I sit here?" he asked in a polite tone.

Molly looked around to see that there were a lot of empty seats. She wondered why he wouldn't want to sit where he usually did.

"Sure!" she said uncertainly. He grinned and sat next to her.

James Moriarty was a short guy with cropped black hair. He was considered the king of the school. Molly never really understood why he was so popular. Sure he looked good but he wasn't your typical tall muscular football team captain who were usually popular. She had seen members of the football team bending to his will. Maybe it was because he always had Sebastian hovering over him like a bodyguard and that he dated Irene.

As if on cue Sebastian came into view. The guy looked like he spent every waking hour in the gym. He had a hulking figure, the constant source of drooling among many girls. He had blond hair and grey eyes. He was about to approach them when James waved him of. Sebastian shrugged and pulled a bloke from his seat to occupy that place. The guy picked himself up and went to sit at the very back.

To say that Molly was creeped out by them was an understatement.

"So… Molly right?" James asked.

He was wearing a blue T-shirt and ripped jeans. Molly couldn't help but be curious about his sudden interest.

"Yes"

He was about to say something else but Mr. Stamford had begun the class. Molly sighed gratefully. Curious or not it was better to keep her distance from James. For the second time in the day she thought 'This is going to be a long hour.'

Molly was more than happy when the bell rang signaling the end of the class. She had felt James gaze on her throughout the class.

"You have a week to turn in your assignments" Mr. Stamford said and dispersed the class. Molly packed her belongings and moved towards the hallway. She saw that Irene was waiting by the door for her boyfriend. Seeing her bought the events of the morning to her mind and she gave Irene a dirty look. She was just about to exit when she heard James say, "Bye! Molly."

Molly was shocked. Why was he suddenly being so nice? But she decided to use the opportunity.

"Bye James" she called out in an overly sweet tone. Irene narrowed her eyes and Molly could feel her glare on her back as she went past her.

 _Take that! Ha!_

Molly had a bright smile plastered on her face as she went to the cafeteria. Greg and Mary were already at their usual table. Molly plonked down next to Mary and grinned.

"Why are you so happy?" Greg asked. "Is it because of new crush?" he asked with a sly smirk. Molly smacked his arm and giggled.

"No! I'm happy because I pissed off Irene." Molly told them about what had transpired.

"Yay! Go Molly!" they cheered.

"Where's John?" she asked as she unpacked her tuna sandwich. John Watson was Mary's boyfriend. "Don't know. But he'll be here." Mary said.

"Oh! There he is. And look he's brought a friend." Greg said and winked at her. Molly turned behind to see that indeed John was bringing someone along with him to their table. It was Sherlock. He looked at her and smiled recognizing her from the algebra class.

God! She was turning into a puddle because of that smile.

 **AN: Thank you for reading. Review! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Thank you for the fav/follows and the reviews! :D**

It had been almost three weeks since Sherlock had joined her school and Molly Hooper was head over heels for him.

She was currently ogling him across the cafeteria table. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt and black jeans. He looked practically mouthwatering. John was animatedly explaining something to him to which Sherlock was listening but with a bored expression. Mary noticed her drooling friend and nudged Greg. They both saw her dreamy expression and snickered. Sherlock and John looked at them in confusion as they tried to pass their snickers as a cough. Molly who was now successfully out of her daydream glared at them.

Sherlock was brilliant this was one of the most glaringly obvious thing Molly had noted in the past few weeks. They had two classes together Math and Chemistry. He also joined the gang at lunch as he and John had become friends. Well at least it was friendship on John's side. From Sherlock's point of view it was probably companionship.

With the ability that one possesses when one has a crush, she tried to know everything about him. Sherlock seemed to be a different persona when he was around other people. That was another important and interesting thing she had observed about him. He was brutally honest, hence wasn't very sociable. She had picked up these sociopathic tendencies he wouldn't contribute to any conversation apart from lunch. Also another incident merely days after he had joined school made sure that the other students gave him a wide berth.

Philip Anderson, a mean rat faced fellow, had tried to pick up a fight with Sherlock in the hallway to impress his girlfriend Emily. Molly was about to tell Anderson to back off when Sherlock took one look at him, the same scanning look he had given her when they first met, and had spouted of a string of embarrassing stuff about Anderson including the fact that he was cheating on Emily with Sally Donavan. Sally who had been loitering around had fled immediately with a red face. Anderson had simply gaped in shock and was shaking with fury as Sherlock walked away. Molly had quickly followed suit to attend Chemistry. Since everybody had embarrassing stuff to hide the other students barely acknowledged him which seemed to be more than fine with Sherlock.

Despite her raging crush Molly hadn't talked a lot to him. In fact she had barely introduced herself the day he had joined them for lunch for their first time at their table. She had no idea why she had been overcome by a sudden fit of intense blushing and stuttering. Mary had cooed later saying that it had been adorable to look at but Molly had been mortified. So much for making an impression. She was pretty sure that he knew about her feelings since that guy never missed a thing.

Also another reason was that he didn't seem to be interested in girls at all. She need not have worried about Irene. She had tried to flirt with Sherlock but he just gave her 'please don't bore me' look and repeatedly made it clear that he was not interested. That made Molly's day. All though it was not only Irene. Many other girls had also tried their luck with him. It was only expected, he looked like a Greek God after all. But he turned down every one of them.

So Molly didn't want to spoil what they had now by asking him out. It was some kind of friendship but Molly was not sure. During Math she would sit with Mary and upon entering the class he would smile, that heartbreaking smile, at her and take his seat at the back of the class. It was those smiles that made her feel special. But well who was she kidding? During chemistry they would be lab partners as he found every other person in the room to be imbeciles. Molly treasured these lab sessions. It was at this time she could observe his brilliance at close. Then again at lunch he would give her that smile and turn to converse with John.

Every time they had a sleepover Molly would gush about Sherlock to Mary. Mary would advise her to ask him out already. That he treated her differently. Then Molly would point out that he thought she wasn't an imbecile and that he was not interested in relationships and that she was okay with it. Mary would just roll her eyes and endure more talks about Sherlock.

The shrill ring of the bell brought her back to the present. They all got up to go to their respective classes.

The rest of the day was a blur. She had test in most of the classes. The last hour was library for which she was thankful. She loved books. She happily picked up a book on advance biology and settled down to read. The book was written in great detail and had accurate illustrations.

Molly was jolted out of her reading when she felt someone occupy the seat next to her. She looked up to meet the beautiful bluish green eyes of Sherlock. He nodded at her and began to read his book on criminology. She had to admit, he looked even more gorgeous in the setting of the library surrounded by books. She blushed and ducked her head. God! So much for reading. She just stared blankly at the book in front of her highly aware of him sitting next to her.

She felt relieved when the bell rang signaling the end of the hour. As she got up she glanced at Sherlock who was still reading. Since she hadn't been able to read the book she would have to issue it. She handed the book to Mrs. Turner, the elderly librarian, for issuing. By the time she had the book in her bag the library was empty. Molly's shoulders slumped as she sighed. She had hoped to join Sherlock till the parking lot. She trudged out of the library.

"Hello."

Molly had to literally choke down her startled scream. Sherlock who had been leaning casually on the wall, pushed back to join her.

"Hey" she said trying her best to not squeak.

He had waited for her. Molly did a little victory dance in her head. They walked in comfortable silence till they reached the parking lot.

Sherlock looked back when he noticed that she had stopped at the entrance.

"You carry on" she said. "I got up early so I decided to walk to school, so no bike." She couldn't wait to call Mary and tell her about him waiting. She was just about to leave when he said, "Yes, I know that. There was no sign of crease on your blouse so obviously you didn't come by your cycle. You will have to walk back so I was going to offer you a lift."

Molly looked at him shock as she processed what he had told her. He noticed creases on her blouse? And more importantly he was offering her a lift?

He was looking at her expectantly.

"Um… sure. Thank you."

Oh my god! Sherlock Holmes is giving me a lift home. Yay!

They came to a halt when they reached his motorcycle. Sherlock settled himself on it and kicked the engine to life. Molly had expected it to roar like the other motorcycles she had seen but it merely growled.

"Hop on" he said as he revved the engine. Molly who was now giddy with excitement climbed on and they were off.

 **AN: Thank you for reading! Review plz.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: This one is in Sherlock's POV. Enjoy! :D**

Sherlock felt Molly's hands as she placed them tentatively on his shoulders. He had to make himself focus on the road rather than the warmth that radiated from her fingers so that the bike didn't veer out of the road.

When Sherlock had first joined the school he expected it to be like his previous school. Full of people trying to be something they were not. But when he first looked at Molly he saw someone who was content and happy with what she was. That felt like a breath of fresh air.

You see he was from the Holmes family. They were one of the oldest and richest family in Italy. That automatically meant that they were posh. His brother Mycroft was okay with all of it, but Sherlock hated it. Because of his deduction skills he knew that people spoke to him nicely only to be in the good graces of the Holmes. It was nauseating. Needless to say he hated socializing.

He had gone to one of those schools which catered only to the rich. They taught him how to cut a powerful figure and the tactics of continuing the family business.

Boring. What Sherlock really liked was science. The stuff that they taught at normal schools. He had the mind of a scientist and his brain was rotting with the nonsense that they fed it there.

He endured ten years of boredom but no more. He had made his intentions clear to his parents. He wanted to study the sciences not the workings of family business. They had Mycroft for all that. Initially they had denied but Sherlock was stubborn so they had to relent to his wishes.

Sherlock had been ecstatic. Despite his hatred for socializing that came with normal schooling, he would finally have real knowledge. It was not that he hadn't studied all of it on his own. He had his own personal laboratory and a library at home. But he knew that systemized education was necessary. He wouldn't be able to become fully knowledgeable by reading from various sources.

Also being away from Italy meant that his family background would not affect him and the way people treated him. It gave him a kind of freedom he had only dreamed of.

Now as he was riding his motorcycle with Molly he had to wonder how this had happened. He had no idea why he had offered her a ride home. Sherlock didn't do well with matters of the heart. He staunchly believed that he didn't have one. When it came to Molly he didn't know how he felt. He had tried comparing her with John. John was now his companion. He could use the word friend also, he supposed. But he realized that what he felt towards Molly was different. He could bear here presence and maybe and just maybe he liked it? Damn. Emotions were so not his area. All he knew that was Molly liked him for who he was and didn't have any secret agenda. He would know if she did like he had found Irene's.

He could see right through Irene's simpering and giggles. She found him attractive and despite the fact that she had a boyfriend she wanted him, so that she could gloat about having him and maintain her social status. Repelling.

Sherlock was told many a times that he was handsome. He didn't care. His body was just a shell.

Well to be honest he liked the fact that Molly appreciated his appearance. She would be staring at him and when he looked up would blush profusely which would cause him to smirk. The blush made her face very pretty...

Now back to the matter of this bike ride. Thinking about her made him lose focus. Damn.

Just like every day he took in her appearance and gleamed that she had walked to school rather than ride her bike as usual. Then he had proceeded to class. Everything had been relatively normal until he happened to overhear Moran.

 _"_ _Hey Charlie! Give me a ride back home" Moran said to the other guy._

 _"_ _What about James? He ain't driving you? "_

 _"_ _He got to drop someone else. You driving me or not?" he asked flexing his arms for an effect._

 _"_ _Chill dude! I'll drop you, no problem." Charlie said with a gulp._

Sherlock had immediately realized what this was about.

Jim Moriarty was from a rich and powerful family, just like Sherlock's. The Moriartys had a bad reputation around the world.

Sherlock had observed that Jim had shown interest in Molly that bothered him. Moriarty was as smart as he was and he must have realized Molly would be walking home and use the opportunity to get close to her. Sherlock felt sick in the pit of his stomach when he imagined Moriarty escorting Molly home. He decided then and there that he would drop Molly home. Moriarty was the thug of the school and Molly shouldn't be anywhere near him.

And so here he was protecting Molly Hooper like a knight in shining armor. He shuddered at the thought.

They finally arrived at Molly's home and Sherlock slowed the vehicle. Molly got down. His shoulders immediately missed the warmth of her fingers.

She looked at him with a curious expression.

"What?" he asked.

"Um… It's just that….Uh… How did you know where I lived?" she asked with a stutter. Sherlock felt a slight stirring in his heart to know that he caused it. When he realized what she had asked he lied.

"Everybody knows where the famous Dr. Cooper lives." He said with a smooth smile.

There was no reason to tell her that he had followed her home once. Like he had followed John, Mary and Gary. In his defense, he was bored. But he didn't think Molly would take it lightly.

Molly smiled and shook her head.

"Oh! Silly me."

They just stood there in awkward silence until Molly said slowly "I should go."

Sherlock cleared his throat. "Yes, you should."

"See you later" she said as he kicked the bike to life and drove away.

When Molly was sure that she couldn't see him on the driveway, she jumped up and gave a delighted squeal. She immediately rushed to the house and headed straight for her phone. She dialed the first number on her speed dial and fell face down on her bed.

"Hello?" Mary said as she picked up her phone after three rings.

"Oh! Mary you'd never guess who dropped me home…."

At a little distance away from her house, Sherlock drove his bike with a smile plastered on his face after seeing Molly's delighted squeal.

 **AN: Thank you for all the reviews,favorites and follows. The more reviews I get the faster I'll update. Just saying! ;)**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Hello! Thank you for your reviews, favs and follows. :D Here's the update. Hope you like it! :)**

Molly woke up with a groan, trying to shield her eyes from the sunlight streaming in from her windows. She checked her clock to see that it was nine in the morning. Well at least there wasn't the danger of her being late for school, it was Sunday. She contemplated going back to sleep when her father announced that breakfast was ready. Molly smiled and shook her head. How could he possibly know she was awake?

She freshened up and went downstairs. Her father was making pancakes in the kitchen.

"Good morning sweetheart" he said. He looked ridiculous wearing the apron like he always did. Molly giggled at the sight and went over to him.

"Good morning dad" she said as kissed his cheek noisily.

They settled down for their breakfast and chattered about their week.

"Oh! Dad before I forget, I'm going shopping with Mary today. So I won't be here for lunch."

"That's ok. But I want you to be here by four."

"Why?" she asked in confusion. Here dad wasn't the one for curfews.

"A very dear friend of mine is here in town and he's throwing a party. We are invited. I'll send the car around five, you should be ready by then."

She didn't bother asking who it was. Her father had a lot of friends and it had got to a point where she couldn't keep track at all.

She shrugged. "Fine, I'll be back by four."

When they finished eating Molly cleared the table and helped with the dishes. Her father was very particular about cooking and doing the dishes on his own. Despite the fact that they had maids he insisted on it. It was his way of spending time and bonding with Molly. Now that she went to school they spent even less time together.

They were discussing the pros and cons of various anesthetics when her father's pager buzzed.

"I've got to go, an emergency" he said apologetically.

"No problem. I think I'll head over to Mary's now." She said and hugged her father goodbye.

Molly had planned to take the bike but it was bright and sunny so she decided to walk. There was very less traffic and the parks full of children with their parents.

Molly grinned broadly thinking about the previous day.

Sherlock Holmes had given her a ride home. On his motorcycle.

As she thought about Sherlock she felt butterflies fill her stomach. She had talked to Mary for two hours over the phone. She felt a little guilty that Mary had to endure her ramblings about Sherlock. But the feeling evaporated when she recalled those days when all Mary would talk about was John.

They had agreed to a celebratory shopping trip.

She was still ten blocks from Mary's home when she spied a sleek red Audi which was idling near the foot path. Something was very familiar about the car but she just couldn't place it. As she approached the car, James Moriarty got out from the driver's side and leant casually on the door.

Molly felt herself tense up as she took in his appearance. He was wearing a pale green T-shirt with baggy brown jeans. He must have looked handsome but all Molly felt was a chill that ran up her spine. The past week James had showed a lot of interest in her. He had taken to sitting next to her during biology and Molly would sometimes feel his eyes on her when she passed him in the hallway. She couldn't fathom a single reason as to why he would be interested in her.

She commanded herself to relax. He was probably here in the neighborhood for his own business. No need to flip about nothing. She straightened her spine and walked determinately. However her steps began to falter when she saw him walk towards her.

"Molly Hooper, what a surprise!" he said, his eyes wide as if in genuine surprise.

She smiled politely. "Hello James" she said unsure of what was happening.

"Going somewhere?" he asked.

"Uh…just to a friend's place."

"Then let me give you a lift." He offered like a polite gentleman. However Molly knew better. He was anything but a gentleman. She had heard rumors that he was involved with the illegal lot of London, and was mostly sure that it was true.

"Um..thanks but no thanks. I can manage on my own."

"Please, I insist" this time his voice a little cold.

That bristled Molly.

"I said I can manage on my own. Thank you for your consideration." She said assertively. James laughed as if he were pleased by her resistance.

"Fine then I'll walk with you."

Molly didn't know how to outright tell him no. So she just shrugged and he joined her as she started to walk faster than normal on the pavement.

"What's the rush?" he asked easily keeping pace with her.

"I'm running a little late" she said which was not entirely true. It was already ten fifty.

"All the more reason to accept my lift" he said with a sly grin. When he saw her glare he smirked and added "just saying."

Molly really wanted to ask what he wanted from her but was afraid of his answer. So she just kept her mouth shut. He walked silently besides her but she felt his eyes on her all the time.

When they reached Mary's home she stopped and turned to him.

"Here we are" she said with fake enthusiasm. "Thank you."

"It was my pleasure, Molly. See you later" he said with a gleam in his eyes.

When he walked away she left out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding. She then opened the gate and headed inside. She could see Mary at the door, her hands folded and her foot tapping. When she reached the door Mary immediately pounced on her.

"Oh my god! Was it Moriarty?" she gushed.

Molly pushed past her into her house and made a beeline for Mary's room.

Mary followed her and dumped herself next to Molly on the bed where she was sitting.

"Yes, it was James" she said.

"Gosh Molly. First Sherlock and now James. You go girl." She said pumping her fist and giggled.

Molly elbowed her.

"It's not funny. James literally scares the hell out of me. I have no idea why he is all of a sudden interested in me."

"Relax. Probably he just got bored by Irene. God! Have you listened to her talk?" Mary said rolling her eyes.

Molly knew that if they began bitching about Irene they would never go shopping.

"Well get your purse. We better go, I have to be back home by four."

"What? Why?"

"Have to go to some party. Dad's friend." She explained.

"Well ok. Let me get my coat and purse."

They said their goodbyes to Mary's mom and left the place. They took a cab to Carnaby Street, their favorite place to shop. Molly couldn't help but look back from the cab to check now and then whether a red Audi was visible or not. When she didn't spot one, she began to relax.

On the way they chatted about school, movies and heroes. And most definitely John and Sherlock as well. Mary shopped for clothes and Molly just accessories. She already had a boat load of dresses. When they were at it she saw a headband with a cute silver bow on it. When she went closer to examine it Mary said "Don't even think about it."

"But it looks so sweet" she begged.

"No way am I letting you buy that." Mary said with her 'no nonsense' tone.

Molly gave it one last look of longing before she let Mary drag her away.

They stopped for lunch at a small café and had sandwiches. Molly was in dire need of new books so they stopped at a book stall also.

By the time it was three thirty they were both exhausted but happy.

They shared a cab, dropping first Mary and then Molly.

With her arms full of bags, Molly went home and dumped them on her bed. She would organize them later. She took a long hot shower and started the task of deciding what to wear.

After about twenty minutes of contemplation she decided on a black dress which came down till her knees. She side partitioned her hair and let it down. She wore the earrings and bracelets which she had purchased that day. She wasn't into heels but decided to wear the black pumps she rarely wore. After applying some minimal makeup she deemed herself ready.

Sharp at five o'clock, the driver honked at the gates. She picked up a matching glittery black purse as she rushed out of the door. They went to pick up her father from his clinic. He had changed into a grey suit.

"Hey dad" she said.

"Hey sweetheart. How was your shopping?"

"Great! Mary and I had a lot of fun."

"That's good to hear."

They sat in comfortable silence as Molly watched the city blur past her.

"Whose party is it? You never mentioned." she asked after a while.

"Oh! Right. It's Mr. Holmes's."

 **AN: Thank you for reading! :) Let me know what you think. :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Hey people! Thank you for your reviews, favs and follows. I crave them. :p Enjoy! :D**

The moment her father told her that they were going over to the Holmes's for the party, Molly felt her heart beat increase and a smile creep up on her face.

Sherlock will be there. Yay.

The idea of seeing Sherlock outside the school setting was a bit unnerving, yet exciting. Molly was grateful that she chose this particular dress. It was a gift from her dad for her fifteenth birthday. It had strands of velvet gold woven in a delicate pattern along the length of the dress.

She was practically bouncing by the time they reached the Holmes mansion. It was on a private road about three miles from the city. The entry to the private road had a huge wrought iron gate. It was manned automatically. The security camera mounted on the gate swung in their direction when they approached and the gate opened inwards granting them access. The road was enclosed by trees, mostly oaks whose yellow leaves seemed to glitter in the setting sun. There were also a hundred variety of flowers whose blossoms lay strewn on the road, forming a multicolored carpet. And at the end of the road stood the Holmes mansion. According to her father it wasn't THE Holmes mansion, it was something like a summer house. Molly shook her head at that in disbelief. Summer house?

The place was huge. It seemed to sprawl across the estate in which it was situated. It looked like a place out of a fairy tale that her father used to read to her when she was younger. The architecture seemed to be of medieval times. The dark wood used in the construction had acquired a fine sheen with time. It looked majestic.

She had always had an inkling that Sherlock was very rich. It was the way in which he dressed, the way he carried himself. Being born in a rich family herself she knew where to look. But Sherlock seemed to be a whole new level of wealthy.

As her mouth hung open at the sight of the mansion, their car had reached it. Molly checked her appearance one last time in the rearview mirror before she got out of the car with her father.

It was a hot day so she hadn't bothered with a coat. The servant at the door took her father's coat when they entered.

If Molly had been impressed by the exterior of the mansion, it was nothing compared to the awe she felt at the interior. It was as if she had been teleported into the medieval times itself. The floor was carpeted with a rich crimson which perfectly completed the deep brown mahogany furniture. The walls were painted with a soft pearl color and were adorned with life like portraits and stuffed animal heads. The drapes at the window were also crimson in color held together by golden ropes.

Molly began to look for look for Sherlock almost immediately. There were people all around dressed in fashionable clothes. A woman wearing a red floor length silk gown with a matching Gucci bag laughed at something her equally glamorous partner had said. There were a fair number of young people like attendance and she blushed and ducked her head when they caught her searching looks. Sherlock was fairly tall and with his curly hair he was hard to miss, yet she wasn't able to find him.

The party already seemed to be in full swing. Wine and champagne was being served along with other Italian delicacies.

Her father picked a glass of wine from the tray carried by a waiter and led her to whom she assumed to be the hosts.

Molly had imagined Sherlock's parents to be a lot like him. Kind of serious and a bit aloof. But she had never been so wrong in her entire life. They were the life of the party. Guests around them were jesting and smiling. As they made their way, Mr. Holmes took notice of her father.

"Ah! Cooper, welcome. It had been a long time" he said.

"Yes it has, Mr. Holmes. And you, my lady, do not look a day older than we last met" he said as he pressed Mrs. Holmes knuckles to his lips.

"Always the flatterer" she said giggling. "I presume this beautiful young lady is your daughter" she asked when she saw Molly.

"Yes. This is Molly."

Molly wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Usually she would just shake their hands or say hello, but with people of such status she didn't know. Also this was Sherlock's parents!

Mr. Holmes saved her by reaching out and shaking her hand.

"A pleasure" he said with a charming smile.

Mrs. Holmes kissed both her cheeks to express herself. Molly did an internal cartwheel at that which externally came out as a blush.

They spoke for some time all the while Molly's eyes wandering, searching for her crush who hadn't made an appearance at all. She was disappointed. Maybe he wasn't here at all.

After some time her father excused themselves so they could meet some of his other friends. Mrs. Holmes hugged her and told her to keep in touch which made Molly blush once more as they made their way across the hall.

Later her father let her wander. Dr. Cooper knew that Molly wasn't much of a fan of these parties and the talk between her father and his friends bored her. Usually she would just go to the balcony and gaze at the stars in the sky.

She picked up a croquette from a passing tray and headed out to the garden. Since the party was in the ground floor there wasn't a balcony.

The sun had set and a cold breeze made itself known as she opened the glass door that lead to the garden. Just like everything else the garden was impressive. The smell of roses and jasmine and the sound of crickets filled the air. It was full moon on that night and the moonlight seemed to fill the place with magic.

She spied a bench painted white and decided to sit down for a bit. Her feet were taking revenge on her for wearing the black pumps. She sat down and watched the silhouettes of the people moving inside, enjoying the party as she ate the extremely delicious croqutte.

Suddenly she heard a scuffing noise. She turned head and listened again. The sound seemed to be coming from the bushes. She was a little bit scared when the bushes shook violently and something leaped in front of her.

She swallowed her scream when she realized what it was. It was the cutest dog in the history of dogs. She giggled and pet the dog who wagged his tail.

"You scared me" she said as the dog licked her face, happy to have made a friend.

He was a big dog with such a brownish coat that it appeared to be red. His ears flopped down and he had huge black eyes. As she was petting the dog, again she heard rustling from the bushes. This time she wasn't scared. She assumed it would be another dog. But when the figure stepped out her heart seemed to stop, stutter and begin to gallop.

"Good boy, Redbeard. Who's your new friend?" Sherlock Holmes asked in his deep velvet baritone of a voice, a twinkle in his eyes. He looked heartbreakingly handsome in a tailored grey suit. The shirt extremely tight, the buttons struggling to not pop against his muscled chest and the top two (only two!) open. Even his curly hair seemed to be so stylishly mussed that she had an acute urge to run her fingers through it.

What else could she do at the sight of such perfection? She blushed scarlet, the same shade as the carpet and the curtains.

 **AN: Hope you liked it! I love reading your reviews. ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Hey people! :D Thanks a ton for your favs, follows and especially your reviews! They made my day. Enjoy. :D :)**

Sherlock looked at the brightly lit house from a distance and felt happy that he was as far away from it as possible. Though he didn't give a damn about the galaxies and universe, he could still appreciate the beauty of the night sky filled with stars and a shining crescent moon. He took a lung full of the moist earthen smell around him and continued to walk through the thick forest that was part of the Holmes property along with an excited Red Beard, away from the party.

He hated parties. He hated being outnumbered and at the parties the number of morons were stifling.

 _Well at least it's not Italy_ , he thought dryly.

The parties in Italy would overflow with food, drinks and imbeciles in large numbers. Not to mention the endless parade of girls who wanted to date him. Those things had driven him to find ways to slip out without anybody noticing him leave. Piece of cake. It was even more fun when Mycroft had to explain where his brother was. Nothing like watching Mycroft squirm.

He smirked.

His parents had arrived the day before in the late hours of night. His mother was missing him already so they decided to just fly in. Mrs. Hudson, his housekeeper, had to bang on his lab door for a good five minutes to distract him from his analysis of a particular fungus culture to announce their arrival. His mother and father had both hugged and they went on and on about how they missed his presence and how much they loved him. He finally had to shoo they away by pointing out the lateness of the hour and faking few huge yawns.

He sometimes wondered why he and Mycroft were so different from the rest of the family. But then, that was something he always wondered.

He had managed to sleep for a couple of hours when he was roused by the sound of activity in the house. He put on a T-shirt and pajama pants and went to the kitchens noticing that the servants were bustling around.

"A party" he groaned as he picked up a cup of steaming tea from the tray.

Mrs. Hudson who had been looking over something at the stove smacked his other hand.

"How many times have I told you to let me bring you your morning tea to your room? It's my job" she chided him.

He had just continued to sip the perfectly made tea irritated by the prospect of a party.

"Your parents are having a party and they have invited all their friends in London. Now you be a good gentleman and attend to your guests instead of sneaking away" she said in a no nonsense tone.

"Why would I sneak away?" he said with his most innocent face.

Mrs. Hudson smiled as she shook her head. "At least don't let anybody see you sneaking out" she said before returning to the stew that she was making.

And that was exactly what he had done. He had stayed at his parents side playing the 'good gentleman' when the party began. As the guests streamed in they got busy and he had slipped away with Red Beard at his heels.

/-/-/-/

He looked at his dog who was currently chasing a rabbit. One minute he seemed to be succeeding and the next, the rabbit disappeared from sight as if it had never been there. Red Beard gave a seemingly irritated growl then turned to give Sherlock a sad look.

Sherlock laughed.

"Come here boy" he said.

Red Beard came bounding, his tongue lolling out. Sherlock petted him as he continued to laugh.

The dog was a gift to him from Mycroft for his eleventh birthday. In his opinion it was the only useful thing Mycroft had done in his entire life. They had bonded immediately and had been inseparable since then. He had been obsessed with pirates at that time (even now) and had named the dog after his favorite pirate. Red Beard was one of those few beings who did not judge him.

Speaking of those who didn't judge him, he was reminded of Molly. Well not exactly reminded. She had been the only thing on his mind for the past few days. The bike ride had definitely disturbed his equilibrium. He kept focusing on the memory of her hands on his shoulders. The way the wind had made a few strands of her long brown hair caress his face.

 _And here we go_ , he thought.

He was beginning to get lost in the thoughts of this Molly Hooper. It was the first time that a girl had captured his attention. Initially he had wasn't sure whether she liked him or was simply being nice. She was a kind person always smiling at others and being cheerful, even to the likes of Anderson. It should have been easy to find out with his deductive skills but he didn't try to deduce that. He had to admit that he was afraid to know. But then she had jumped up and squealed in delight after he had dropped her home. Well, with a sign like that only an idiot will miss the fact that she liked him. And _he_ wasn't an idiot.

Now that that was settled he wasn't sure what to do next. Should he ask her out? Should he just wait? He wished he had a little experience in this area. Maybe he should ask John for some advice. He was in a steady relationship with Mary, maybe he would know.

Or maybe not. He was sure that asking John was like giving him arsenal for teasing.

He was distracted by Red Beard, who was licking his face, trying to get his attention as Sherlock had stopped petting him and was simply crouching down with a faraway look in his eyes. He petted his companion absently and thought it was better that he headed to the lab to continue the experiment he was doing. He could just slip right back in through the garden and half-heartedly do experiments with Molly Hooper on his mind.

/-/-/-/

It took some time for Molly's body to catch up with her brain but when it finally did, she realized that she was blatantly staring at the Sherlock and that she ought to tell something instead of just intensely blushing.

"Um... You weren't there at the party" she said with a minimum amount of stammer as possible.

 _Way to go! Thank you pointing out the obvious_ , a sassy part of her thought. She told that part to get stuffed.

Sherlock who had been scanning her from head to toe looked up.

"Not really a party person" he said with a chuckle. Molly smiled as well. Now that they were talking it was easy to focus on the conversation as opposed to his attire and how gorgeous he looked.

"You look beautiful" he said in a rush as if he had been psyching himself to tell it out lot.

The blush which had been dying down flared up with full force.

"Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself" she managed.

The lighting was quite low but Molly was sure that his ears turned pink as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

They just stood there awkwardly looking everywhere but at each other. Red Beard was looking at them curiously before going after something into the bushes.

"I'm working on this experiment on fungus would you like to see?" Sherlock asked.

If it had been any other girl she would have given him a disbelieving look and walked away, disgusted. But not Molly. Her eyes brightened and she smiled widely as if he had just asked her out.

"I'd love too" she said. The party would go on till the late hours of morning. So she didn't have to inform her father, who would be undoubtedly sharing wine and stories with his friends.

Sherlock offered her his arm and she took it shyly, both of their hearts hammering in their chests.

/-/-/-/

Molly looked around Sherlock's personal lab and was quite impressed. The place looked like a facility one would find in research institutes not in somebody's home. They had gotten in through the backdoor. When asked why not just go back the way she had come he muttered something about too much noise and imbeciles so she just let it go with a grin. Sherlock had switched on the fluorescent lamps which hummed as she took in the place. There were polished steel counters, microscopes, centrifuges and a lot more high tech stuff.

He led her to the work station and picked up a slide.

"I'm studying the growth rate of fungus in different temperature and humidity. Here take a look" he gave the slide to her. As she took it their fingers brushed and Molly felt butterflies fill her stomach.

However she managed to place the slide without dropping it and looked into the eyepiece. She was instantly hooked. The cells were multiplying like she had never seen right in front of her eyes.

She looked at Sherlock excitedly.

"Amazing."

"Isn't it? I've prepared another sample for a different temperature" he said getting out a log book to note down his findings.

"Let me get it for you" Molly offered. "Where is it?" she asked.

"On top of the cabinet near the window" he said peering into the microscope.

Molly walked up to the cabinet and saw the culture on the top shelf. However she couldn't reach it despite wearing heels. She tried standing on tip toes but that didn't help either.

"I can't reach it" she turned and called out sheepishly.

"Here let me help" he said and reached over her to get the petri dish.

However he stopped mid-way when he realized that Molly hadn't moved yet and froze at the sudden proximity. Her breathe was hitting his face and his eyes were glued to her lips just like hers were glued to his. He gulped. For a moment time seemed to just freeze as they gazed into each other's eyes.

And when it unfroze Molly closed her eyes and Sherlock kissed her.

 **AN: Hope you liked it! :) Feel free to review. :p**


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Hello! Know what? I love you guys! Your support makes my day. Thanks for the wonderful reviews, the favs and follows! :D :) Hope you like this.**

"Please…please let me go. I swear I won't tell anyone. Just please…Aaah!"

James Moriarty loved this part. The part in which they were all reduced to begging, pledging that they would do anything if he let them live. It made him high to know that their lives were in his hands. His to play with.

His eyes were closed and a smile adorned his lips as he heard the painful cries from Carl Powers. He must admit, Sebastian knew how to make a guy scream. Seb was currently punching the life out of him, literally.

Seriously it hadn't been his plan to kill Carl Powers today. Maybe be sometime in the future for fun and entertainment but not today.

Detective Inspector Dimmock had become annoying, preventing the easy flow of his drugs to those who craved the mental haze. All in all making a pest of himself. Usually he would just send Seb, he didn't like to get his hands dirty. But he really need to see the life drain out of Dimmock's accusing eyes. They had broken into his house through window on the ground floor. Dimmock lived alone so sadly there weren't other people to kill. Seb had restrained the sleeping man who was rudely awoken by the arrival of his murderers and James himself personally administered the specially made chemical that would induce a stroke, a natural stroke. Once the cop became still, they had sneaked out the same way they had come in. Both happy with the events of the night.

However it would seem that Carl Powers lived in the same neighborhood as the inspector and that little shit had taken photographs of them climbing out of the window and had the nerve to black mail him with it.

You see the thing is he didn't like it when somebody had the upper hand. No matter however delusional they were about having the upper hand.

He had agreed to hand over the money that Carl demanded and asked him to meet him at the lake which was next to their school. The fool had come, the lure of money inhibiting his sense of fear. And now he had to die. Wonderful.

He listened for a few more minutes. The moans and grunts of pain, music to his ears as they grew weak by the passing second.

He sighed as he pushed back from the tree he was leaning on.

Carl was kneeling with his face bloodied and bruised like the rest of his body.

"Well I think you've had enough. Now where have you kept those photographs Carl?" he asked his voice all cheerful, in extreme contrast to the situation.

"It's in my room, below a loose floor board" he said in a rush, anything to save himself, his voice hoarse and broken.

Moriarty pulled out the photographs from his jacket pocket.

"Excellent. That was exactly where Seb found them. Didn't you Seb? Now since you've been such a good boy I think you really deserve a reward" he said with a smile which didn't reach his cold eyes.

"Seb give the poor lad some ice to soothe those cruel bruises" he said and turned to walked towards his Red porche, his ears filling with the Carl Powers's screams as Sebastian tied a heavy rock to his leg and pushed him in the freezing lake.

/-/-/-/-/

When they broke apart from a surprisingly spectacular first time kiss, Molly had to take a moment to stop the world spinning and force her racing heart to beat normally. Apparently Sherlock had the same notion as he rested his forehead against her's and just focused on breathing.

Sherlock felt the need to say something.

"Uh…Um…That was good" he said at last after racking his brains to say something nice.

Molly giggled.

"Yes it was."

They just stood there holding each other for some time before they resumed to record his findings both smiling at each other.

Molly checked her watched sometime later and sighed. An hour had already passed. It seemed like mere minutes.

"Let me escort you back to the party Molly, your father would probably be looking for you" he said. He had been analyzing a slide under the microscope his back towards her. Yet he knew the meaning behind her sigh.

He offered her his arm, just like he did in the garden. Molly shyly took his hands and they went hand in hand to the party downstairs which was still in full swing. The moment they entered or more correctly Sherlock came into view they were immediately surrounded by a throng of girls. All of them beautiful in their own way and crafty in their attempts to steal in attention.

Molly watched with growing amusement as Sherlock tried to fend of hands which wanted to touch him or bodies that wanted to hug him. He was trying his best to be polite, a fake smile stretched on his lips. Molly wondered how long it would take before he snaps.

Thankfully it didn't come to that since the high pitch squeals and giggles were interrupted by his mother.

"Sherly! You're here?" she asked genuinely surprised and happy that Sherlock had returned to the party instead of just sulking somewhere.

All the girls around them cooed at the nick name but Molly just wanted to roll on the floor and laugh as she saw Sherlock's pained expression along with his pink ears.

"I see you've met, Molly. Isn't she lovely?" Mrs. Holmes said her eyes twinkling noting that Sherlock was still holding her arm.

Now it was Molly's turn to blush as she tried to wiggle her arm from his grip. But Sherlock wouldn't let go.

"Yes, Mother. She is quite lovely and also in some of my classes at school."

The girls around them shot her evil glares as they realized that their charms were not being effective and melted away trying to find other prospective partners.

They made small talk for some time as Molly looked around for her father. There were a lot of people so she couldn't really see properly. When a duchess came over to talk to Mrs. Holmes they moved away, Sherlock leading her towards the other end of the room.

Molly simply floated in her pink cloud, happy to simple be near Sherlock though still looking for her father. However he seemed to track him among two hundred guests.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"Only a few here share similar interests with your father" he said simply.

How he knew about her father's interests, she had no idea.

Doctor Cooper was discussing something intensely with a middle aged man who looked like a professor.

His face brightened when he saw Molly. Molly introduced Sherlock to her father and it was clear that he approved of him.

"Molly and Sherlock meet Dr. Stephen, he is working along with me on the new government project I'm helping with" he said.

Dr. Stephen shook their hands warmly.

"Well I better say my goodbyes to the hosts" Doctor Cooper said and went to thank the Holmes.

Molly did the same.

"Thank you Sherlock for the wonderful evening" she said sincerely.

Sherlock just smiled in return.

She didn't know what to expect. Yes, they had kissed but did that mean something? Sherlock wasn't your normal guy and she somehow knew relationships weren't his thing. So what did that make them now?

"The museum is featuring a special human anatomy exhibition on Wednesday. You might gain a lot of information if you attended it" he said with a feigned air of disinterest.

Molly tried to hide her grin as she understood what he was doing. She decided to play along.

"Sounds interesting. I'll take out sometime to attend it. Thank you" she said gauging his reaction.

A frown flickered on his face.

"You might need the guidance of someone who has knowledge in the field" he tried again.

"Then I think I'll ask my dad to come with me" she said now grinning from ear to ear.

Sherlock laughed when he realized that she was joking with him.

"Alright let me ask directly. Will you go the exhibition with me?" he asked.

Molly laughed.

"Yes, Sherlock. I'd love to. Well I better go, see you tomorrow at school, Sherly" she said with a wink, leaving behind a grinning Sherlock.

/-/-/-/-/-/

Molly slept as soon as they settled into the car. However she was woken up when they were in the vicinity of the school grounds by the glare of a car's headlight as it raced past them. Molly thought the red car looked familiar but dreams about soft curls and lush lips pulled her under again.

 **AN: Feel free to review! Thank you for reading! :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Hello! :) Thank you for your support! :D I hope you like this one, Enjoy!**

James let the mindless chattering wash over him. He looked at the group that was around him as they continued to babble. He was leaning against his car, his arm around his girlfriend in the parking lot of their school. The classes would begin in about twenty minutes and his 'gang' was just passing their time. He listened for a moment to what they were saying.

They were discussing the latest iPhone, movies and where to party tonight.

Boring.

Irene was talking to Kitty about some spa that they were planning to go. Horribly boring.

When he looked at them, all he saw was tools. These people were carefully selected. They were easily manipulated and would be very useful in various situations. Each one had the connections to various places that he wanted. Josh's father was very powerful in the country's defense sector, Kitty's mother was the head of a leading media channel and so on. Except for Irene. She didn't have any special background. But she was cunning and pretty. That could be handy. Very handy indeed.

He turned to look at Moran who was silent. He usually was. He was just looking around, those emerald eyes taking in everything around him. James liked to entertain the thought that Moran was his personal body guard. Everybody thought so. He was much bigger than James, bigger than everybody in their school. And yet, he let James order him around.

He smirked at that.

His musings were interrupted by the sudden rigidity in Irene's pose. When he looked up to see what the cause of her distress was, he wanted to laugh.

 _Oh! This was precious. This was rich,_ he thought with mirth.

Sherlock Holmes had apparently given a ride to Molly Hooper in his motor bike this morning. Irene immediately began to bitch about Molly to Kitty, but he wasn't paying attention to that. He was paying attention to the two figures that were making their way to the entrance. He could read a lot from that.

He allowed a little smile to come up on his face.

Now that Sherlock was also 'involved' with Molly things became more interesting.

The game was on.

/-/-/-/-/

John Watson smiled as he spied his blonde girlfriend enter the hallway. He seriously didn't know how he got this lucky. Mary was truly the best thing that had ever happened to him. When she spotted him leaning against her locker door her face lit up, making her even more beautiful.

"Good morning, beautiful" he said with a grin.

"Oh! Look we've got a charmer" she said pleased. "John this is the fourth time you are wishing me."

It was true, he had already sent her three messages each conveying that she have a pleasant morning. Also they had texted the entire night.

"Well nothing beats wishing someone personally" he said.

Mary rolled her eyes. "You are being too smart. Come here" she said and pulled him for a kiss.

They then began to discuss which movie to watch that evening. Sherlock and Molly joined them after a few minutes.

Molly greeted them cheerfully and Sherlock as usual nodded at them. They talked about their respective weekends when Greg came up to them. He appeared nervous.

"Clearly you have some news you want to share but don't have the authority to" Sherlock said.

Greg was surprised. He should be pretty much used to Sherlock's deductive skills but he wasn't. He didn't think he will get used to that, ever.

"Well yes. Carl Powers is missing" he said finally.

"Really?" John asked shocked.

"Yes. My dad's been assigned to the case. His parents haven't seen him or heard from him since Saturday" he said.

"I am not supposed to say anything but the police will be here today to talk to some of his friends and teachers. Anyway everybody will know."

Sherlock listened with great interest.

"When did anybody last see him?" he asked.

"On Saturday he had come back from the nearby comic store at around eight in the night and went to his room. That was the last time his mother saw him. He didn't leave the house after that according to them."

"Hmm…." Sherlock said with a faraway look.

However any further discussion was stopped by the shrill ringing of the bell.

They all began to head to their class. Sherlock exchanged a look with Molly who blushed as she let Mary drag her to English.

When Sherlock was out of sight, Mary cornered her.

"Out with it" she said with excitement.

Molly blushed.

"Oh! My God!" she screamed and hugged her.

"Molly this is awesome. You guys are together. I am so happy" she gushed.

"But how did you know?" Molly asked.

"It is not difficult when you know where to look. Also I'm smart" she said with a grin.

"Now I want to know the where, when and how. Go on. Go on."

"Girls, what are you doing here? Don't you have a class to be in?" Mrs. Hudson who was on her way to the Principal's office asked them.

It was then that the realized that the hallway was almost empty.

They apologized and then ran flat out towards the class, giggling all the way.

/-/-/-/

John was trying very hard to shush Sherlock. Their lab teacher kept throwing them irritated glances.

John and Sherlock were lab partners and their experiment table was at the back of the lab. The experiment was a little complicated consisted of three continuous titrations. However it didn't seem to interest Sherlock.

He kept muttering about what Greg had told them.

"Oh! This is good John. A missing student. No evidence, nothing so far. Hmmm…"

And he had been doing that for the past thirty minutes.

"Sherlock, stop it. You are going to get us thrown out of the lab. Any minute now."

"Thrown out? What? Oh! You're concerned about your impression upon the lab teacher. Forget him, he's an idiot."

"But what about the experiment?" John asked, a conical flask in his hands.

"For science's sake!" Sherlock grumbled and snatched the flask from John. He took a silvery solution from one of the bottles from the cabinet and added a few drops of it in the flask. He then titrated it swiftly and got the required result. Though his actions seemed hasty, he had been extremely precise.

"Here we're done. Now will you listen?" he asked.

John just blinked. He knew a lost cause when he saw one.

They went up to the teacher to show their result. He was obviously shocked at how quickly they had finished the task. He had gotten it out of an university material.

 _Kids these days_ , he thought wryly.

"You may leave, if you want."

Sherlock didn't waste one minute in dragging John out.

"I'm listening."

"We need to go to Carl's home" Sherlock said.

"I don't think his parents will appreciate visitors now" John said.

"We are going to be visiting them, John. We will be investigating. The game is on." Sherlock said with a grin.

 **AN:Thank you for reading. Liked it? Didn't like it? Let me know. :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Thank you for your support. :D And the reviews make me smile like crazy. Thanks again people. Enjoy. :)**

"We are doing what?" John asked in disbelief.

"Oh! John. Do keep up." Sherlock said irritated, as they walked swiftly down the road that led to Carl Powers's house.

They were currently in a dingy suburb full of grey houses and dark alleys. Though it was just eleven thirty, almost middle of the day, a weird kind of darkness had settled over the area. It was as if the sun's rays weren't enough to fight the shadows over here. All in all a very scary neighborhood, yet all John could feel was the rush of adrenaline and excitement in his blood.

John pulled Sherlock to a stop. The deep blue trench coat which he was wearing fluttered by the action.

"Are you saying that break into the house? The house will be monitored and we would definitely end up in jail by tonight."

"Yes, John. We would be breaking into the house. And no we won't get arrested" he said with a smirk.

John threw up his hand and decided to follow his best friend. He trusted that prick with his life, anyway.

Yes, Sherlock Holmes was John's best friend.

Right from his childhood John had a lot of friends, school friends, friends from his neighborhood and so on but he never had a best friend. He had this unquenchable curiosity and attraction towards dangerous/adrenaline inducing situations. But he was never strong enough to act upon them. With Sherlock he realized why. He needed someone to prod him, he needed to know that he wasn't the only one crazy enough to think such stuff.

Today, they had sneaked out of school through the playground. Sherlock had noticed that a particular section of the wall had plaster protruding like ledges. It was noticeable only if you looked for it. It had been fun.

Sherlock halted, just when the house came into view. It was a two storied building that was badly in need for some painting work. No scratch that, it needed renovating. And yet, it looked quite decent next to the shambles close to it.

John waited as Sherlock's eyes darted around their surroundings. Finally he pointed to a homeless guy, sitting on a park bench, reading a paper.

"That's the police. I must say, I'm impressed with Lesterade's father. He has taken this missing case seriously" he said.

"How would you know that?" John asked, frowning.

"Why would you place a plain clothes officer instead of a uniformed one, if it was just some random kid disappearing? He hopes to catch someone" Sherlock explained.

"But then, this policeman would rival Anderson in his stupidity" he said rolling his eyes.

John looked over at the man and didn't understand what Sherlock was talking about. The guy looked homeless, shabby and had a very worn and patched coat to protect against the cold, the effect he was trying to make.

"Well he looks homeless to me" he said.

"Of course he would. But to the trained eye, he is glaringly a policeman."

John waited for him to explain. But then Sherlock ducked into the nearby alley and headed towards the dead end.

John sighed again and followed him. When they reached the wall that would block their progress ahead, Sherlock climbed on a trash bin on their right and leapt over the partition and into the next street.

John stood there, questioning why he had agreed to join Sherlock in the first place when he heard Sherlock shout his name.

"Aren't you coming? If you hadn't noticed, we are in a bit of a hurry." he said from the other side of the wooden partitioning.

"A little bit of warning would have been nice" he yelled back as he clambered over the dumpster. Curse Sherlock and his long legs.

When he finally jumped over the partition, he looked up see that nobody was there. He was just about to get pissed when he saw Sherlock already climbing another dumpster to reach the street on which the Powers lived. His tall, coat clad figure and curly hair was unmistakable. Well, also you don't see a lot of people climbing on dumpsters do you? Running to catch up with his energetic friend, he joined Sherlock as he waited in the alley.

"Look John, there is the front door just in view of the policeman. Now these houses are identical, part of a government project to house people. When I observed the other houses, I saw that there is a back door, leading to the kitchen and another French type window in the side. The best route would be to take the side window. His mother is in the kitchen, judging from the smell of cooking." he said rapidly.

John nodded to show his understanding and together they followed the procedure of climbing and jumping into streets until they reached the back of the house. Crouching they silently made their way to the window all the while John's heart beating faster.

However as they reached the window, Sherlock stopped suddenly, causing John to bump into him.

"Do you see this?" Sherlock asked excitedly.

Sure enough there were footprints below the window. Sherlock knelt down and inspected them keenly. From John's point of view, he looked a blood hound on an exciting trail.

Then without warning he straightened, peeked into the room having the window, then looked around for a moment.

"Well, John you should be happy to hear that we wouldn't be breaking and entering after all. I think we have collected all information the house has to offer. Let's go back" he said as he dusted his pants.

John just gaped at him.

"What? You have collected all information? But you just looked at the footprints for like, thirty seconds!" he exclaimed.

"Yes. I'm that good" Sherlock said smugly and proceeded to climb over dumpsters again. John followed him, with a teeny tiny bit of panting.

"Why did you call the policeman stupid?" he asked, his curiosity burning.

"It was quite simple. One of the most obvious thing was his haircut and shaved face. Which homeless could afford a trip to barbers which would definitely cost more than food? Next, the coffee cup in his hands. The café where one could get that coffee is near the Yard and I'm sure a homeless can't afford their costly prices. There were other details but this much was enough" he said.

John saw the policeman again in his mind's eye and now that he knew what to look for, he could plainly see that it was a very shabby attempt.

"That was very simple" he said, smiling at his inability to not get it by himself.

"That's the curse of deductions. One moment you are awed by how I knew all that and when I explain it, the magic is gone" Sherlock chuckled.

"I mean what I said. Yes, it was simple but noticing it in the first place is extraordinary."

"Really?" Sherlock asked, looking almost shy.

"Yes, Sherlock. It was fantastic."

And that was for the first time, John had seen him smile freely and genuinely.

/-/-/-/

It was lunch time when they went back to school. It was bit complicated as one of the senior classes was having a football match. However they managed to get in without being caught.

Their friends were at their usual table wondering where they were.

"Where were you?" Mary asked the obvious question.

John was about to get into the regaling tale of their little investigation, when Sherlock said, "We were at the playground watching the senior football match."

John understood the look Sherlock gave him.

 _Not now_.

"It got boring" he said.

Mary looked at them suspiciously for a bit, and then let it go.

Molly who had been talking to Greg, smiled shyly when Sherlock sat next to her.

"Hey" she said, her throat choking a bit with the butterflies in her stomach.

Sherlock grinned at her blush as he said hello in return.

Mary did a few back flips in her mind on seeing the obvious romance. _Go Molly!_

She kicked John's foot under the table and discreetly pointed at the couple who were now simply getting lost in each other gazes.

John almost spat his sandwich in shock and then grinned.

"About time" he said out loud startling them. Sherlock's ears turned pink when John patted him on his back, while Greg and Mary laughed.

"Congrats mate and you, Molly" Greg said, punching Sherlock playfully on his shoulders.

"Yes yes, Molly and I have begun dating and all is fun and dandy. Now that we have established that, drop it" Sherlock said as he took Molly's hands in his.

Now that caused another round of teasing and they all laughed heartily, while Molly looked at their entwined fingers and a rush of happiness went through.

However the group did not notice James who was watching them with his cold beady eyes and the smirk that curved his lips as he looked at the happy couple.

 **AN: I know you people are curious about why James is fixated with Molly. What does he want? Even I wanna know! Any guesses? Hahaha! :D Maybe in the next chapter? ;)**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Hey! Thank you for the support. And to the guest who wanted to know about the alerts well, you have to create an account and follow the story so as to get an alert via email. I am a very irregular writer. So, sorry I won't be able to tell you in advance when I will post next. Cheers! :D**

Just like Greg had told them, the police came in the afternoon to school to investigate about Carl Powers. He wasn't exactly popular, but he had quite a lot of friends. They were all instructed to gather in the auditorium by their principal. The whole school was abuzz with excitement and nervous energy. But overall they were all just happy that the classes had been cancelled for the day.

Hordes of chattering students began to move in the direction of the auditorium. Sherlock spotted Molly and Mary and walked over them. Shortly they were joined by John and Greg. The group joined the others in the auditorium. Though there was a lot of place at the front, Sherlock insisted that they sit at the back, muttering something about 'being able to keep an eye'.

The room began to fill steadily. The last ones to enter was Moriarty and his little group. They headed straight to where they were sitting and took the seats across them.

Sherlock gazed at Moriarty coolly and took Molly's hands in his. Irene gave Molly an obviously fake smile and threw Sherlock a sultry look, before settling next to James.

On the stage there were three police officers and some faculty members along with their principal. One of them bore a striking resemblance to Greg, so that must have been his father.

All the noise died down, when the Principal's voice echoed throughout the room through the mike.

"Dear students, one of our students Carl Powers has gone missing" Mrs. Turner said without any preamble.

After a beat of silence the entire hall erupted with noise as the students absorbed what was told to them.

However once again they settled down when she began to speak.

"Detective Fred Lestrade would like to talk to you about it."

Fred Lestrade was a tall man with a very honest face. His voice boomed as he spoke.

"Carl Powers was last seen on Saturday, by his parents. If any of you have information, no matter how trivial, you are requested to share it with the police. Your help could be vital to save your fellow student. You are requested to return to classes while we do some investigation. You are free to go home, when we are done."

His last statement was met with grins on the faces of the students. All they thought was Carl must have had quite a bit to drink and just gone out of town fooling around.

Since the girls and Greg were supposed to have physics class, they went together leaving John and Sherlock to go to chemistry.

John decided to quench his burning curiosity, now that they were kind of alone, as they took their seats. Just to be sure, John looked around so that they weren't overheard. All around them students were chatting and making plans as they would be leaving early.

Before he could ask anything, Sherlock turned his head in his direction.

"What would you like to know?" he asked.

Normally John would have just gaped. But prolonged exposure to his best friend's ability to almost read minds didn't surprise him anymore.

"What did you gather from the crime scene yesterday?" John asked, straight to the point.

Sherlock's face took a blank expression for a moment. He was accessing the crime scene from his mind palace, so that he could point out the details. When he was done, his eyes sparkled.

"We noticed foot prints below the window, remember? It was quite fortunate that it had rained earlier so that the prints were quite set. For a casual observer, usually the forensic department, it would look like a single person's footprints. All the prints are of the same size and from the same type of shoe. Yet, when I looked closely I saw that one set of prints was fully formed. While in the other set, the front of the shoe wasn't that defined. What does that suggest to you?"

"That someone put false prints?" John said after thinking a bit, his opinion more of a question.

"Well done, John. That's an interesting observation, even though it's totally wrong."

John huffed.

"Well don't feel bad, you do not have in depth knowledge on foot prints" Sherlock said with his trademark 'I'm a genius' smirk.

"Well then what's your theory?" John asked, his curiosity not letting him feel bad for long.

"Someone else entered and exited the room. They must be very clever, since they wore the same type of shoe, despite it being a size less than theirs. That is why the front of the shoe wasn't very clear in the print. There wasn't any pressure at the front to leave a good print."

"That's very clever" John exclaimed.

"Looking into the room I saw another pair of Carl's shoes. It would match with the fully formed print. It only shows that Carl, left his room through the window, but never returned. While the other both enters and exits. Now that we have established that there was an intruder that brings us to the next question. Why was he there in the first place? That is easily solved. If you observed the dust on the floor, you would see that one of the floor board has less dust than the rest. So, whatever the intruder needed was underneath the loose floorboard."

John had been silent through his entire reasoning.

"Sherlock that was amazing" he said in awe at the mental prowess of his friend.

"We should tell the police about it."

"Nope" Sherlock said popping the 'p'.

"Why?" John was appalled.

"Because they would hinder my progress. As long as the police treats this as a missing person case, the intruder will have no reason to fear. He wouldn't flee or take measures to cover his track."

John couldn't argue with his reasoning.

"Now there are only to things left. Who and Why?" Sherlock said, assuming what looked like a prayer pose.

"If we get answers to that, we will find where Carl Powers is."

/-/-/-/-/

Molly was feeling a little low. She was a compassionate being and was very much affected by Carl's disappearance. Mary who was quite adept at reading Molly's mood, gave her a supportive hug and just sat silently next to her reading a book. One of the detective's was in their class and he was talking to Melanie, Carl's ex-girlfriend. They couldn't hear what they were talking, but it was clear that Melanie was quite upset. The poor girl must still have feelings for him.

They were there for about fifty minutes. Then when the detective was finished, he told them that they could all leave for home. The class gathered their bags and made to the exits.

"I'll wait here for Sherlock" Molly said, as they reached the parking lot.

"Well, I wish I could wait with you for John. But I really have to catch up with my assignments, if want to make it to the movie with him today" she said.

"Anyway, you have fun" she drawled.

Molly blushed and giggled.

"That's better. Bye, I'll call you later" Mary said and headed towards her car.

Molly waved and smiled, unaware of the eyes watching her.

/-/-/-/

James Moriarty had been following Molly from the class. Now that she had decided to wait in the deserted parking lot, it was a perfect opportunity.

It wasn't Molly he was interested in, to be honest. She would be very useful to him, if she was his girlfriend instead of Sherlock's, considering where her father worked.

George Cooper was working in a top secret research project for the government. He would be handling a lot of new age medicines, which if tweaked rightly, would be deadly poisons. And what's more, the effects of these medicines would produce an absolutely normal looking death. The death of Dimmock was a beautiful example.

These new age medicines needed to be in their research state itself, for his people to tweak them. If they would be authorized for use on humans, and they will be, a lot of components would suppressed, making them useless to him.

Initially he had thought that Molly wouldn't be needed. Seb had searched Molly's entire house, including her father's personal digital locker (a poor security against him). Yet, he was unable to find the files containing the molecular structure.

One thing, he was very sure. There needed to be files, digital or otherwise outside the research facility. The project needed all round day work. So Molly's father would have the files somewhere. He just needed to know where.

So they had needed mousy little Molly, after all. Having her, would mean he could be familiar with her house and her father and ultimately the files.

But before he could familiarize himself with her, Sherlock Holmes had to come into the picture. His lips curled into a smirk, even though his eyes blazed at the name.

He had always considered Sherlock to be his arch nemesis. He was quite aware of his deductive skills and also knew that Sherlock had more than the allowed knowledge about his drug dealings. But all this didn't seem to bother him like the way he got angry when he knew that James's attention was on Molly.

It made the game even more delicious.

But now poor Molly was all alone and it was time to make his move.

 **AN:Thank you for reading! Hope I didn't disappoint. Let me know what you think. :D**


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: Hey! I know it's been looong. All of a sudden I couldn't write the story anymore. This is more like testing the waters. Please bear with me!**

"Molly."

Molly was startled when she heard her name. She turned around to see that it was James. She tried to suppress a shudder as a chill ran up her spine. She didn't know why but every time she looked at those cold brown eyes her gut told her to just run in the opposite direction. However she decided to be brave.

"James" she said and turned back, wishing Sherlock would hurry up.

She rather felt than heard James step closer to her. He was now invading her personal space. She was beginning to feel nervous and uneasy, but she didn't want to seem mousy by stepping back. So she held her ground, clutching the straps of her bag tightly.

"I've been meaning to ask you out for quite a long time now" he said, causing Molly to look at him in astonishment.

"But then things just seem to get in the way."

 _Things like Sherlock and his annoying need to make things difficult,_ he thought with a sneer.

"So, Will you go out with me for coffee?" he asked coolly, almost as if daring her to reject him.

Molly however was growing furious. By this time the whole school knew she was dating Sherlock and he had seen them together in the auditorium that day only. Not only that, she had seen Irene practically sit on his lap in the auditorium. And he was asking her out? How dare he?

"No" she said resolutely and stalked out of the parking lot.

James watched at her retreating figure and shook his head. He had hoped to not hurt Molly Hooper. But she wasn't playing nice and she had told him no.

But this also made the game interesting. Well, time to do it the old and boring way.

He took his phone out his back pocket and dialed.

"Seb."

/-/-/-/-/-/

John had to run to keep up with Sherlock.

"Slow down, will you?" he panted as he finally caught with his curly haired friend.

"Molly was supposed to be waiting for me" Sherlock said, his eyes roaming the parking lot.

At that moment, he felt his phone vibrate.

At home. Come over later.

-Mollyxx

John had peeked and was trying to not smirk. He had been sure that he would have to literally knock some sense into Sherlock's thick skull to make him notice Molly. But they seemed to be just fine.

"I'm going back to Carl Powers's area. There is something I'm missing. Coming?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes. But I can't stay long. Movie date with Mary."

Taking Sherlock's bike would make them conspicuous, so they took the bus.

They got down a few blocks from his home and walked the rest of the way. However this time there was no climbing and jumping. They directly went to Carl's home.

They rang the doorbell and waited. One moment John saw that Sherlock had a focused expression and the next, just when the door was about to open, his face morphed into one of extreme sadness. He could swear that he saw tear collect in his eyes.

A sad faced heavy woman, who was well into her middle age opened the door.

"Yes?"

"Um…We are Carl's friends. Uh… we just heard today that he was missing. Is there anything we could do to help?"

John could swear that he had never heard Sherlock stutter. His acting skills was amazing. All he could do was merely nod along.

Mrs. Powers expression saddened even more if possible, but some kindness showed in her eyes.

"Thank you, dear. It's nice to know Carl has such wonderful friends. But I'm afraid there's nothing you can do. Say, though I haven't seen you two before."

"Oh! That's because we live quite far away. Not _this_ neighborhood" Sherlock said, stressing the 'this'.

"Hmm…yes. If you were from here, I would have known. There's only Marcus from here. He lives just two houses from here."

Abruptly his concentrated demeanor was back.

"Thank you, Mrs. Powers" he said and turned away from the house.

John uttered a few words of sympathy and good wishes before catching up with Sherlock.

"What was that?"

"Now we have someone who might know something about Carl. It's pretty simple. People tend to blab when they are sad, if given the right cue."

By this time they were in front of a house that was in dire need of repair.

"Wait here, John. Keep a look out."

With that, Sherlock fastened his coat, put on his scarf and John watched him walk confidently towards the house and knocked hardly on the door.

The door opened to reveal a spotty faced teenager, almost their age.

 _He must be going to one of the local schools_ , John mused.

Sherlock showed something that he was holding and Marcus's face paled instantly.

For about five minutes they spoke or it was mostly Sherlock asking something and the poor fellow nodding. Then Sherlock was back.

"Come on, John. I've gleaned all I could."

When they were on their way back, John couldn't control his curiosity.

"What did he say?"

"Quite interesting things. Looks like Carl was expecting a large amount of money. But he wouldn't say how. Naturally Marcus got curious and kept an eye on him. The day Carl disappeared, Marcus saw him leave his house through the ground floor windows at around eleven. He followed him but then when it looked like he was heading towards the school, he gave up. It's everybody's knowledge that the school football team players had late night parties in the playground."

John tried to process all this information.

"So…something must have happened at the party?" he guessed.

"No there was no party that night. I checked" Sherlock said. "The answer lies somewhere in or near the school."

Suddenly John remembered.

"What did you show Marcus that he got so scared?"

"Oh! This" he said and tossed a solid object towards John, who caught it easily.

It was a police badge.

"Where did you get this?" he asked incredulously.

"I pickpocketed the inspector who was questioning me at school" Sherlock said with a shrug.

/-/-/-/-/-/

 **AN: You're feedback is much appreciated.**


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: Hey guys! It's been a really long time since I last updated. But thanks for sticking with me. I am determined to finish this story now. Hope this chapter is to your liking.**

John cursed when he look at his watch. He was so busy investigating with Sherlock that he hadn't realized that he was going to be late for his movie date with Mary.

"Let's take a cab" Sherlock suggested, his hands already raised to flag down one.

"No! Wait. I don't have enough money on me" he said.

"I know" his high cheek boned friend said with a smirk. A cab appeared in front of them as if out of thin air.

John simply threw up his hand and got in, Sherlock right behind him. After giving the cabbie their destination they settled in a comfortable silence.

John was trying to make some sense out of the information they currently had. Was Carl involved in some sort of underground business? Did he get into trouble because of that? Was it drugs? Round and round his mind went. But all he got was more questions and no answers.

"Thank you" Sherlock said out of the blue.

"Why?" John asked with a perplexed look on his face.

"For coming with me. I do well with a partner" he almost looked shy. He was really thanking his friend for bearing with him even though he gets quite arrogant when investigating. Also John hadn't called him a freak, like others usually would.

John smiled at him. Though Sherlock behaved like a prick and mostly wanted a partner just to have an audience for his brilliance, he had a good heart. And John was having way too much fun. What they were doing was adventurous, something that John didn't know he was missing.

"It's alright. I enjoy this" he said truthfully. He both grinned at each other.

They didn't speak after that. Sherlock dropped John at the cinema, right on time for his date and continued on his way to Molly's home.

/-/-/-/-/

He usually texted when before visiting Molly but he was already there so he didn't bother to. He paid the cabbie and opened the gate. He knocked at the front door. When the door opened, only one word came up to his mind.

 _Adorable._

Standing before him was Molly, clad in a ridiculously colored jumper and pajama, her hair in a messy bun and Toby perched like a bird on her shoulders.

"Sherlock?" she squeaked her face alight with a blush.

"Molly" he nodded and grinned at her.

"You didn't text" she said. She hastily tried in vain to fix her hair and straighten her clothes.

"You look beautiful" he said, meaning it.

Molly froze in her attempts and smiled shyly at him.

"Despite the hideous jumper" he said with a wink , which earned him a slight punch on his shoulder.

Sherlock caught her hand with both of his and they looked into each other's eyes, lost in their depths. The moment was broken when Toby got bored and decided to find a better spot on the coffee table. They both laughed at him and Molly motioned for Sherlock to come in.

"So, what do you want to do?" she asked him, when they were comfortably sitting together on the couch, sipping hot chocolate.

"I'm perfectly fine with just this" he said and curled an arm around her shoulders, making Molly nestling into him.

"Perfect indeed" Molly said giggling.

They began talking about nothing in particular. Eventually the topic of Carl Powers came up.

"Poor fellow" Molly said with a sigh. Sherlock just hummed in response. The warmth his girlfriend (he grimaced at the childish word) was exuding was somehow dulling the whirring in his brain. It was very pleasant.

"Must be hard for Greg's dad."

"Why is that?" he asked.

"Well his partner, detective Dimmock, who just recently died, used to live next to Carl's house. Being in the neighborhood to talk with Carl's mom must have been difficult."

Sherlock sat up abruptly which jostled Molly a bit. Thank god, her cup was almost empty else the cushions would have been ruined.

"What happened?" she asked with concern. Sherlock focused intently on her.

"Tell me more about this deceased partner." She blinked and gave him a quizzical look.

"Well Greg's dad and he had been partners for almost five years. He was young and quite healthy. It was such a shock when he died of heart attack."

Sherlock's face was blank for a moment before he cradled Molly's face and gave her an enthusiastic kiss.

"Brilliant!"

"Um…what?"

He didn't see the point of hiding anything so he told Molly everything he knew so far. She just looked at him with her mouth wide open. Also the awe in her eyes at his deductions made him, well, made him preen.

"Don't you have to give this information to the police?"

Sherlock scoffed. "The yard is incapable of catching the criminal if he was right under their nose. No, they would simply slow me down."

Well, she couldn't argue with that. Sherlock had made far more progress than the yard.

He was silent for a few minutes.

"Though it would be erroneous to make assumptions and get ahead of ourselves, I have a feeling that Carl's disappearance and the detective's death are somehow connected."

"You think Carl killed the inspector Dimmock?"

"What did I tell about making assumptions Molly? Anyway, no. That doesn't make logical sense. Why would he disappear? Nobody suspected him. There may be a prospect of him taking off with the money but from what I have learnt from his friend he wasn't in the possession of it when he disappeared. Hmm…"

He assumed his prayer pose, deep in thought.

Molly for her part was confused and a little dreamy. Sherlock looked extremely beautiful when he was in his element. His impossible yes sparkling and intent. But the prospect of her schoolmate being in trouble darkened her mood. She sighed as she took their empty mugs and washed them, occupying her mind with chore and letting Sherlock think.

She was startled when she felt arms snaking around her waist, as Sherlock hugged her from behind.

She smiled and relaxed into him but didn't stop.

"What is your opinion on exhuming a body?" he whispered into her ears.

Molly rolled her eyes. Leave it to Sherlock, to whisper morbid things instead of the usual romantic sweet nothings.

"Ow!" he yelped when she elbowed him in his ribs.

"You don't have to go that far, yet. Detective Dimmock's family had the department conduct an autopsy. Of course nothing showed up but checking the report is worth a shot before you go disrespecting the dead."

He gave a chuckle, his breath tickling the back of her neck.

"Alright" Sherlock agreed but he didn't move away. She turned around to look at him.

"Aren't you going?" She knew he was itching to.

"Aren't you coming?" he countered.

"I want to. I'm afraid I can't. Some of us have taxonomy sketches to do" she said glumly.

He couldn't resist how adorable she looked anymore and leaned in to steal a kiss. Molly sank willingly into the kiss. When the need for oxygen became too great to ignore they pulled apart.

Sherlock had a torn look on his face. This was a first. Usually when he was on a case his mind was only focused on getting it solved. Clues needed to be followed immediately, yet here he was unable to tear himself away from Molly.

She must have sensed his dilemma because she gave him a gentle push.

"Go" she said sweetly, "I'll be right here."

She would, wouldn't she? He grinned at thought and took off immediately.

Molly laughed at his eagerness and waved at his retreating figure, his coat billowing like a cape behind him. He was already on the phone with John.

She locked the door behind her and walked determinedly to the study room, intent on getting her assignment done.

However she was interrupted by the knock on the door.

Had Sherlock left something behind?

She didn't bother looking through the peephole. Looking back, that was her mistake. Or would it have helped?

"Sebastian?" she asked warily, keeping the door only partially open when she saw who it was. Molly didn't know him well. More like she didn't know him at all. Except for a fact that he was James's friend. Something akin to fear settled deep in her stomach.

"Molly" he said with a smile. "May I come in?"

"Um… Now is not a g-good time, why d-don't you come later" she said stuttering and attempting to close the door in the process.

However Sebastian jabbed his foot in between keeping the door from closing.

"I was hoping you would say that."

She looked up in fear and was about to scream when his hands clamped on her mouth and nose.

The last thing she remembered as the world slowly bled into black was the smell of chloroform.

 **AN: Thoughts?**


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: Thank you for your support! Love you all! :)**

"Um…Isn't this…I don't know slightly…illegal?" John said, looking over his shoulders desperately.

Sherlock gave him an eye-roll that could be the mother of all eye-rolls. "Seriously, John? By now you should know that I don't care much about the law." And he continued to focus on the task at hand.

John just threw up his hands in frustration and returned to keeping an eye out. It was one thing to slightly bend the law. It was a totally another matter when you outright broke it. Though he must admit that the adrenaline pumping through his veins was an amazing feeling.

Sherlock had called him talking excitedly about some new lead and wanted John to meet him at St. Bart's. He had been on his way home from the movies but he had immediately changed directions to head to the hospital. Sherlock joined him about a couple of blocks from their destination.

"What are we going to do at the hospital?"

His tall companion didn't even acknowledge him as he glanced around their surroundings. Suddenly he ducked into an alleyway. Confused John followed him. Before he could voice his questions Sherlock said, "Punch me in the face."

"Punch you?" he asked, his mouth hung open.

"Yes, punch me in the face" Sherlock said pointing to his left cheek "Didn't you hear me?"

"Why would I punch you?" John asked even more perplexed.

"Oh! For god's sake" Sherlock said in exasperation and punched his unsuspecting friend.

It wasn't hard enough to do any damage but it was enough to rile up John, who upon recovering from the blow, dealt a nasty right hook.

Sherlock staggered back a few steps. He seemed quite pleased when he found that blood was now leaking from his nose.

"Why did you hit me?" John asked as he rubbed his knuckles.

"Well, it got you to punch me didn't it?" he said, his voice sounded as though he was suffering from a stuffy nose. He then proceeded to rumple his hair and his clothes.

"Let's go" he said and exited the alleyway.

"Sherlock" John said as calmly as he could muster.

"Hmm?"

"Explain."

Sherlock exhaled loudly which caused even more blood to trail over his lips.

"We need a cover to be inside the hospital. We could of course say we are visiting someone but that would require us to fill out forms and delay us, not to mention having to come up with a believable phony patient. This way" he said pointing to his face, "we can directly go to the ER and slip into the hospital unnoticed."

Surprisingly for John and unsurprisingly for Sherlock, that was exactly what had happened.

Sherlock did a stellar acting of being mugged and John did an okay job of playing a compassionate stranger who brought the victim to the hospital. The ER had been abuzz with activity. Once Sherlock's bleeding nose was tended to, the nurse told him to lie down for a bit before rushing to another patient. It had been really easy to slip out and into the ground level.

They hadn't headed to the morgue as John had predicted. Sherlock muttered something about 'security cameras' 'stealing body parts' and had headed in the opposite direction.

And that was how John found himself keeping watch as Sherlock picked the lock of the coroner's office.

 _Click._

John let out a relieved sigh and followed his grinning companion inside.

"Look for the report on Detective Dimmock" Sherlock instructed.

"Found it" John said, after five minutes of harried searching in one of the cabinets. He passed the file to Sherlock, who immediately began to scan it.

"Hmm…looks like a normal heart attack, no foul play." Suddenly his face brightened.

"Look here" he said excitedly as he pointed to a photograph of a foot.

At first he couldn't see what Sherlock was so excited about but he bent down to look closer he saw that there was a bruise of some sort near the littlest toe area.

"The bruise?" he asked.

"Yes." Sherlock said looking expectantly at him.

"What about it? Could have been from stubbing it somewhere."

"That is was this mostly incompetent idiot also must have thought." John tried his best to not take offence.

"I say mostly incompetent because he at least noted it was odd. But not odd enough to probe it." He placed his finger on the photo.

"This kind of bruise is caused when a person struggles while someone tries to inject them. I've seen it on tortured victims. Our criminal must be very clever. Injecting on any other area would alert the authorities to some sort of foul play. However, inject between the toes, and it escapes the notice of the mostly imbecilic coroners."

"Inject what?"

"I think it would be safe to presume that it's a chemical compound that causes what looks like a natural heart attack."

John was part amazed and part horrified. Amazed at his friend's mental prowess and horrified that Detective Dimmock's death was murder.

Sherlock placed the file back and locked the door behind them.

Cold winds greeting them as they exited the hospital as easily as they had slipped in. The moon was making its steady rise in the sky above immediately flagged down a cab and John didn't even protest. All this was a lot to take in. His friend gave John's address to the cabbie.

"If the detective was murdered and Carl's disappearance is connected to it somehow, d..do you think he's in danger?"

Sherlock nodded grimly.

"Carl must have seen the murderer or murderers. Instead of calling the police, I think he tried to blackmail them. Most probably he must have had some incriminating evidence. Remember the footsteps outside Carl's window?" John nodded. "The evidence must have been under the loose floorboard. The criminal must have gotten hold of it. Could have gotten that information from Carl. But I'd like to think that they would have had no trouble finding it."

John swallowed loudly.

"Carl could be dead."

"Highly probable" he said gently.

"Oh! God. Who could they be?"

Instead of answering, Sherlock whipped out his phone. He dialed and waited, phone pressed to his ears.

"Greg" he said when the person on the other end picked up. There was some murmuring on the other side.

"No I haven't completed the assignment. Yes, John has and I'll make sure he gets it tomorrow for you to copy. I was wondering if you know what the last case detective Dimmock worked on was." More murmuring. Sherlock stiffened.

"I was just curious. Thank you. Bye." With that he cut the call.

"It's Moriarty" he said in a cold voice.

"What? James Moriarty?" John asked aghast.

"Dimmock was working a drug cartel case along with Greg's father. When I first came to this town, I gathered all information on the illegal activities here using my homeless network. There are only a few. But none of them could manage the highly organized drug distribution I had observed. It took some legwork but I found out that there was one run by James Moriarty. Of course none of it obviously showed his involvement, but I knew it was him. I had thought 'clearly, he's living up to and above his family name'. And I let it be. Dimmock must have been close to cracking the case."

"Sherlock, we must inform the police."

"I agree, John. I'll head to the yard after dropping you." They were silent for the rest of the ride. When the cab reached his place, Sherlock dropped of a dazed and slightly ill looking John. He then asked the cabbie to head to the yard.

The cab was almost half way there when his phone began to vibrate in his pocket. It was Molly.

"Molly" he said, smiling despite himself.

Sherlock's blood ran cold when he heard the laughter on the other end.

"It's Moriarty, silly."

 **AN: Hope you like it! :D**


	15. Chapter 15

**AN: Hello! :) I'm sorry it took so long to post! Hope you like this. All errors are my own.**

"No silly. It's me Moriarty."

Panic. A sudden sensation of fear so strong that it dominates all logical reasoning. Sherlock always made sure that he distanced himself emotionally from any situation. It wasn't so in this case.

He was more than emotionally invested in this situation. All his thoughts were a blur, racing around one another, not making any sense. His abilities were a double edged sword. The intimate detail of all possible crimes that are capable by man, made his head swim with all the horrors that could have happened to Molly. They were a jumble whose nucleus was Molly.

"Don't worry. She's not dead, yet" Moriarty said.

Relief flooded through Sherlock with such a force that he felt as if he had been punched in his guts.

Molly was fine. Molly needed him. With a herculean effort Sherlock forced himself to calm down.

"I'm assuming since you have called me, you want to negotiate" he said matter-of-factly. If Moriarty was after money, which was highly unlikely given his background, would have contacted Molly's father. No, it wasn't money he was after.

James laughed. "Your reputation does precede you. Yes, I do want to negotiate, a bargain if you will. I want something, you are capable of getting that something for me. But, I won't tell you what I want is. That would be too easy."

So that is what this was. A game. Moriarty wanted Sherlock to play. To play and lose.

"Too easy indeed" he said, deciding to play the game.

"Oh! You've decided to play along" Moriarty said gleefully. "Since you are so smart I'm going to let you figure it out. I know what you are capable of Sherlock" his voice betrayed no emotion, yet Sherlock felt a chill climb upon his spine.

"You have two hours before Molly here starts to lose parts that she will definitely miss. Hurry up" he said in a sing song voice, before the line went dead.

Sherlock numbly placed his phone in his pocket.

Looking outside the window he could see that he was almost near the yard.

"Take me back" he said tapping the cabbie on his shoulders. The cabbie didn't even bother to give him the stink eye, just sighed before making a U-turn. He knew that going to the police would only end up in a disaster. He could ask Mycroft's help but decided that if the situation became even more dire, then he would go to him.

Satisfied that he was heading back into the city, Sherlock assumed what would later on be dubbed as the prayer pose. It helped him to focus so that he can roam the halls of his mind palace easily.

His mind palace was a memory technique that Mycroft had taught him, right from when he was four. Initially it had been only a two storey building, something resembling their summer house in Italy. A place which Sherlock usually associated with happiness. It was where he was free to simply sit and watch the honeybees or run along with Redbeard in the meadows. It was associated with complete freedom.

But as he grew, so did his mind palace. He had new wings and moved onto different buildings. People, whom Sherlock met on a regular basis had their own rooms. The size of the rooms tended to depend upon their importance. Right now, the biggest rooms next to his family were John's and Molly's.

Sherlock climbed up the stairs and walked to Molly's room. A warm glow was seeping from under the door. He noticed that his hands were trembling when he opened it.

Bright yellow light greeted him when he entered the door. The room had other colours but yellow was the prominent one.

 _'_ _What's your favourite colour, Sherlock?' Molly asked as they sat leant against a tree near the bleachers._

 _'_ _Why would I favour a particular wavelength of light?'_

 _'_ _Fine!' She huffed. 'Be like that. Mine is yellow' she said with a huge grin._

 _'_ _Why is that?'_

 _'_ _It reminds me of summer, my favourite time of the year, though I don't get to wear my jumpers' a slight frown at that thought._

 _'_ _Also it's the colour of comfort and happiness to me.'_

 _Sherlock thought about the way Molly's face light up when she was happy. About the small shy smile she gave when she caught him staring at her across the cafeteria table. About the calm and thoughtful look on her face when she read a pathology journal. And about a million different things. Yes, yellow was a colour that defined comfort and happiness._

Sherlock dragged himself forcefully out of the memory.

The room was filled with tiny little details that he had deduced and noted from Molly. Mind palace Molly was now sitting on her sofa, wearing one of her ridiculously endearing jumpers, petting Tobby. She didn't seem to notice his presence.

Moriarty seemed to have a special interest in Molly. He needed to figure out why. His first thought had been that it was because she was Sherlock's girlfriend. It was no secret that the Moriarty family loathed the Holmes family. But James wasn't petty like that. Jealously was beneath him. Also he had noticed that James had been focused on Molly even before they were in a relationship. And all this had to be somehow related to detective Dimmock's murder.

"What does he want Sherlock?" Mind palace Molly asked, wide eyed, looking directly at him.

He ignored her and went to riffle through the drawers and cupboards in the room. Nothing. He kept looking desperately, searching for something, anything that might help him. But came up empty handed.

"What is it Sherlock? What does he want?" Mind palace Molly asked, her voice high in panic.

"I don't know" he screamed as he knocked the contents of Molly's writing table on the floor in blind rage . He breathed heavily. The rage vanishing as suddenly it had appeared. "I don't know" he said weakly, feeling useless. Maybe Moriarty had overestimated him. He wasn't smart enough to save her.

He eyed the contents that were now lying on the floor. A photo frame, now shattered caught his eye. He picked it up.

It was a mental picture he had taken of Molly on the day they had attended the party at his house. It was the day that he had first kissed her. The day that he had met her father and knew instantly that he approved.

The frame clattered to the ground once again, when his mind made the connection. He wasn't sure how he made it, but now that he did everything was clear.

He remembered the conversation he had had with Molly's father at the party. Dr. Hooper mentioned that they were working on a new government project. The research center at London mainly dealt with Military related projects. Thanks to his usual routine of breaking into Mycroft's room and reading the files which had 'FYEO' stamped with red ink on them, he was usually privy to what the projects were. It would be safe to assume that Dr. Hooper's work was related to the developing of chemicals that caused a death that looked natural.

Detective Dimmock's death was caused by a substance that was completely untraceable and made it look like a natural stroke. That particular chemical and the ones similar to it would be of immense value in the criminal network.

And who better to benefit from this than Moriarty? He was a spider. A spider at the centre of a wed-a criminal wed with hundreds of strings and he knows precisely how each and every one of them dances. Using these strategically he could cause a lot of destruction. It didn't matter how he got the sample initially, the one which he used to kill the detective. Could have been an inside man. Somebody who could only get his hands on the samples. But that was not what James was after. He was after the source.

That is why he had been interested in Molly. He could see it now. Pretend to date Molly, familiarise himself in the Hooper household and then find the files. But then Sherlock's entry into Molly's life and their resulting relationship couldn't let that plan happen.

James Moriarty wanted the files, the notes which had detailed procedures to produce the chemicals. And he wanted Sherlock to get it for him.

That was the game.

And with that he was out of his mind palace.

When he came to reality he noticed that the cab had stopped. He got out and when he opened his wallet to get the money, he noticed that he wasn't back at the hospital where he had taken the cab. He was in front of Molly's home.

He took a sharp breath and looked at the cabbie. One of Moriarty's henchmen.

"No charge" he said with a grin and the taxi begins to accelerate away as Sherlock tries to get hold of the door handle. But he gives up when it gathers too much speed.

 **AN: Okay, I'm going to panic a little out here. OMG! Why didn't I stick with fluff? Why did I have to bring in a case? Trying to think like Sherlock or Moriarty is sooooo difficult you guys! Why? Why? Why? Argkusjugewgryegf!**

 **Phew! So...I get the feeling that this chapter has a lot of detail. It's just that these two are so smart and I feel compelled to explain each and everything, does that make any sense? Hope i did a okay job. Anyway thanks for still sticking with me! Love you all! :D**


	16. Chapter 16

**AN: I know it's been a really long time. But your continued support blows me away! Love you all! :D 3**

As Molly became conscious, memories rushed back into her mind. The kiss she had shared with Sherlock, bidding him goodbye…and Moran. Oh! God. Sebastian Moran had kidnapped her.

The first thing that Molly noticed, as she gradually became aware of her surroundings, was the silence. She was surrounded by absolute and complete silence. Her first thought was that she was trapped inside a box. Her heart immediately began to pound loudly and her breathing became frantic. She didn't want to open her eyes, in case here fears would be confirmed.

However she realized that she was actually sitting on the floor propped against a wall and her eyes flew open. She appeared to be in some sort of basement. The entire space was illuminated by few fluorescent lights. It was quite spacious. There was nothing in the room. It was completely bare. There were no windows and the walls, floor, the ceiling too were made of stone. That explained the silence.

 _Must be part of a very old building_ , she mused.

Making sure that she wasn't in any immediate danger, Molly assessed herself for any injuries. Everything appeared to be fine. Except that her head felt like it was filled with wool. Her breath came out in a surprised huff when she found that she wasn't restrained at all.

"That's weird" she said, her voice barely above a whisper from not being used for a long time.

 _How long had she been out?_

She tried to stand up, barely managing to do so as she was feeling groggy. Walking seemed to be a bit of a stretch. She settled for leaning against the wall and looked around for a way out. When she was sure that she wouldn't fall flat on her face, if she left the support of the wall, she slowly made her way across the room.

In about five minutes of desperate and frantic searching, she had determined that there was only one door, the only way inside or outside the basement. As soon as she spotted the door she had hoped that it would be open, her hopes being fueled by the lack of restraints. However the door didn't have any handle and a look at the huge iron hinges indicated that it swung inwards.

That explained the lack of restraints. What if she could move about freely? There was simply no way out. She was effectively trapped in a giant box.

It was only then that Molly allowed herself to have a full blown panic attack.

/-/-/-/-/

Sherlock made his way swiftly towards the Hooper residence. He wrestled all the emotions and feelings into a room, padlocking the door. Molly needed him and he needed to focus.

If he weren't so emotionally involved, he would have appreciated Moriarty's methods. The porch lights were on and so was the lights in the hall and Molly's room. For any passerby, it might appear as if somebody was home.

He had correctly assumed that the door would be locked, keeping up with the appearance. Using his lock picking skills he was in under a minute. Having deduced the code for the security system, he disabled it. An alarm would only serve to complicate matters.

He took a moment to analyze the layout of the rooms.

In the time it had taken for him to enter Molly's home, he had concluded that the documents must be in Mr. Hooper's residence. Of course, balance of probability stated that it could be in his office. However, Moriarty had connections. He could have easily bribed anyone. Corruption was a major weakness of the human made governing system. It was one of the reasons why Mycroft kept all top secret files at their residence.

Thus the conclusion that the files were here.

He was sure that Moriarty would have already scoured the place. He could easily break into the house. However his sudden interest in becoming friends or something more with Molly must have been to become familiar with the house and track Mr. Hooper's movements. So, the file wasn't in the safe or the locked drawers.

Result: A secret compartment/ room.

Sherlock went to the first obvious location. The bookcase in Mr. Hooper's study.

He examined the line of dust on the shelves. Annoyed to find them of regular thickness. Taking a step back he looked at the entire shelf. He took in all the titles, all of them medical and chemistry related. He tried to find some sort of connection, in hopes of finding a lever if there was one. Nothing. It was all random.

Of course the bookcase would be anybody's first guess.

"Too obvious" he muttered to himself.

He then proceeded to check the tables and cabinets, thoroughly. Looking for a secret compartment. He was quite adept in knowing what he was looking for and none of these seemed to be promising. He was painfully aware of ticking of his clock, the padlocked door in his mind palace rattling.

He moved on to Mr. Hooper's bedroom. And then to Molly's room. And the kitchen. The living room. The closets. His search becoming more and more frantic.

The files weren't there.

The only place left was the basement. Confident that the files had to be there, he opened the door leading to the basement. He took the stairs two at a time and descended. The basement also served as a laundry room, so it was relatively organized. However not a single place looked suitable to store top secret files.

He had been so sure. There was simply no other place.

Sherlock clutched his hair, fear beginning to take root in his mind. Trying to slow him down. The padlocked door threatening to break open.

 _It must be here! It must be here!_

There were several storage boxes stacked on each other in three rows. He started to go through them. However the realization that this was futile and he was just wasting time was making him crazy. A memory of Molly's face looking at him with an impish grin after telling a really bad joke, came unbidden into his mind.

 _What if he fails?_

He picked up and hurled a heavy toy box across the room in frustration.

 _Dhod_

He paused. The box had hit the opposite wall. The contents, scattered on the floor. Sherlock made his way to the wall in long strides. With his fists balled, he banged on the wall.

 _Dhod. Dhod._

He did the same to the other wall, but there was no sound.

 _There's a room behind the wall!_

Checking the wall and the room for any openings, he didn't find any.

Sherlock deduced that given the layout of the house, the secret room must be surrounded by solid earth on three sides and the one side was the basement wall. So the only point of entry would be from the top.

Mr. Hooper's study.

He hurried towards it. The room was carpeted. He rolled away the carpeting, revealing the floor. The floor was even in all places.

Sherlock didn't have the time to scour every inch. He rushed to the kitchen to get a container of flour. He began taking handfuls and sprinkled the flour on the floor.

Luck, if he even believed in such a thing, seemed to be favoring him. Within minutes, a small square about three feet wide was revealed as the flour disappeared around the edges.

Sherlock knelt down and pressed his hands on the geometric figure. It didn't budge.

He huffed out an irritated breath. Of course it wouldn't be that easy. His eyes flitted around the room rapidly, searching for something that shouldn't be there, something that didn't quite fit. They landed on the switchboard. There was only five appliances in the room that would require switches and yet there were six switches. He scrambled off the floor. Quickly he figured out the dummy switch. The floor couldn't simply be activated just by a switch as it could be accidentally switched on. He balanced the dummy switch and pulled it out of the board.

Ah! There it was. A tiny keypad. Quickly disarming it using his lock picking kit, Sherlock heard the quite hiss of the section of the floor sliding away.

A ladder lead down to the secret room. It had a cabinet, a table and a chair. A place where highly confidential documents were kept away from prying eyes.

He immediately went to the cabinet and began to quickly riffle through the files. He gave a crow of delight when he found the file he was looking for.

Yes!

He was one step closer to rescuing Molly.

 **AN: Thank you for reading. Again, your support means the world! Your opinions are very welcome! :)**


	17. Chapter 17

Molly looked around the room which essentially, was her tomb. As she sat on the floor, dejectedly leaning against the wall, her mind came up with various scenarios, each more terrifying than the previous. All of them ended up with her being dead and her body never being recovered.

Was her father aware that she was missing? Did Sherlock know? Even if they did know, where would they start looking for her? Would they get here on time?

Visions of her father breaking down after finding her lifeless body was followed by the haunted look in Sherlock's eyes. She was sure that her boyfriend would somehow blame this on himself. Blood began pounding in her ears and she felt herself breaking into a sweat.

Molly took a deep breath and commanded herself to snap out of it. There was no use in panicking. She had to make it out of here.

"There is always a way out" she muttered under her breath. She kept on chanting the phrase, until her heart rate returned to normal.

She looked around the room once again, drawing a blank. There was absolutely nothing in it. She ignored the sinking feeling in her stomach and started thinking for other ways of escape.

Molly reasoned that since she was alive for now, it must mean that Moran was holding her as a hostage. Her freedom in exchange for something, maybe? So she wasn't meant to die, yet. She didn't even have the slightest inkling as to why Moran had taken her, but somehow she was sure that James Moriarty was behind all of this.

All explanations would come later. Molly's top priority was to get out of this place. Her only chance of escape would be when someone came to check on her.

She knew that the effect of chloroform depended on the amount administered to a person. The amount present in the cloth would have been sufficient to render her unconscious for about an hour. And that meant someone was going to be checking on her soon and she needed to grab that opportunity.

/-/-/-/

Sherlock clutched the files tightly against his chest and made a quick dash to the door. Moriarty's men would surely be watching the house and he wanted to get to Molly as soon as possible.

He was out of the door and had to just wait for a minute before his phone was buzzing.

"Bravo! Bravo!" James crowed. "So, they were right. You must be a genius" he said in a sing song voice that grated on Sherlock's nerves.

"I have found the files under an hour, release Molly now" Sherlock said, his voice sounding almost bored. He didn't want Moriarty to know about his inner emotional turmoil.

"Oooh! You're playing Spock, I see. Claiming that you have no emotions" James laughed in delight.

His voice suddenly took a dark and serious edge "But I've seen you, Sherlock. I've studied you."

"Your claims on being a sociopath is laughable. You definitely let your heart rule your head."

"Why don't you come by the lake near our school? You can tell me all about how you found the file and only after you handover the file to me and I'm satisfied with the contents, you will get to Molly" his voice going back to being cheerful.

"What guarantee do I have that you will handover Molly?" Sherlock asked, his voice beginning to crack.

"That's the beauty of playing with high stakes, Sherlock. You never know, you only hope."

With that the line cut off with a _click_.

/-/-/-/-/

The door opened without any preamble. There wasn't any sound of footsteps like in the movies. The room was absolutely sound proof and she didn't have any warning in advance. Molly made herself look weak by curling into herself, as a man in mid-thirties entered the room, leaving the door ajar. He looked like an accountant, in his khaki pants and pressed checked shirt. Someone whom you would assume to be harmless. Not someone who was helping in keeping her hostage.

He didn't appear to be carrying any weapon, as far as Molly could tell. She almost laughed bitterly. Why would he need a weapon? What was a drugged teenaged girl against a full grown man? He approached and she stood up drawing herself back against the wall. The man didn't react at all. Molly had expected him to say something threatening. Isn't that what these people did? Instead he was silent and kept walking towards her. She didn't let the silence unnerve her. She eyed the door, her one opportunity to escape and steeled herself. She had no idea that all those late nights of staying up late and reading about the human body would be so very crucial. She knew that by applying the right amount of pressure at the Erb's point causes paralysis of the biceps, brachialis, and coracobrachialis.

Just as the man leant forward, hand outstretched to presumably take her pulse, Molly launched herself against him. Using the element of surprise she raised her right hand to give a sound blow aimed at his neck.

What she didn't expect was the man to block her. He caught her hand swiftly and chuckled.

"Ooh! My, my. You are feisty" he said with a wide grin.

Desperate, Molly turned around trying to wriggle and get away.

"I don't think so" he said, voice now laced with amusement. He caged her from behind and Molly pushed hard and struggled to no avail. She could see the open door and it seem to mock her. Knowing that her attempts were futile, in a surge of panic, she bent and bit down hard on the man's hands.

That seemed to break the man's calm demeanor, for he cursed and pushed her down on the floor.

"Enough!" he barked as he stood over her menacingly.

"Did you seriously think that it would be that simple? Attack me and make a run for it?" he sneered. Molly lay still not wanting to anger him further. The only sound in the vast room was her harsh and labored breaths. Seemingly satisfied the man left, locking the door behind him. After all he came down to check if she was conscious and he had his proof. She could almost hear the bolt sliding into place with a finality.

She continued to stay down, just in case. When she was sure it was safe, she sat up quickly. Leaning against the wall for support she let out a huge sigh and grinned down at the object in her left hand.

Of course she knew that making a run for it was not an option. The place could be guarded and it was highly likely that she would end up being caught. Molly didn't think that her attempted escape would be taken lightly. So her plan had to be extremely efficient. She hadn't had any concrete plans but as soon as she saw the guy and his clothes, her plan solidified. It had been easy enough to sneak his phone out of his pockets while she distracted him by trying to attack him and flee. It wouldn't have worked if he had worn jeans. Thank god, for that.

The phone was password protected. It was to be expected but that didn't deter her. She just needed to call 911.

Molly dialed the number using the emergency call option and hoped it would take the guy a little while to realize that his phone was missing.

/-/-/-/-/-/

As soon as Sherlock was out of the gate, a taxi came to idle beside him. He climbed in without a word. He knew that the Moriarty's had control over an immense underground network. But he couldn't understand how they listened to James's orders. He realized for the first time in his life that he had underestimated someone. He just hoped that his mistakes wouldn't cost Molly her life.

A part of him just wanted to hand over the files to Moriarty and get Molly back. He was shocked by that thought. Logically that would be the worst thing to do. The files in the hands of Moriarty would be catastrophic. Though James was operating only in this town right now, Sherlock had no doubts that it was only a matter of time before his network became global.

Yet, the thought of having Molly safe in his arms was all consuming.

Leaning back, Sherlock retreated into his mind palace. Molly was there, already waiting for him. He ignored her and went straight to Mycroft's room. His brother's way of looking at him like an idiot always pushed him to give his best. Molly trailed behind him, looking forlorn. Once he was at the door, he gave her one last look filled with longing and entered the room, shutting the door firmly behind him. His brother was at his desk, reading a thick book on trade laws.

"So…" he said, placing the book down and looking condescendingly at him.

"What are you going to do Sherlock?"


End file.
